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THE RIVER CONGO 



FROM ITS MOUTH TO BOLOBO 



WITH 



A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP THE NATURAL HISTORY 
AND ANTHROPOLOGY OP ITS WESTERN BASIN. 



BY 



H. H. JOHNSTON, C.B. 



WITH OVER SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR. 



FOURTH AND CHEAPER EDITION 
Ebyised by the Author 



LONDON 
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 

LZMITJBD 

&t IBuitstan's Igouse 
FsTTEB Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 

1895 



THE EIVER CONGO 



FROM ITS MOUTH TO BOLOBO 



WITH 



A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE NATURAL HISTORY 
AND ANTHROPOLOGY OF ITS WESTERN BASIN. 



BY 



H. H. JOHNSTON, C.B. 



WITH OVER SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR. 



FOURTH AND CHEAPER EDITION 
Keyised by the Author 



LONDON 
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 

UMITSD 

&t IBuiistan's Igouse 
Fbtteb Lane, Fleet Stbebt, E.C. 

1896 
[AU riglUt '^ur^99X\ 



f 



\ 



f 



231209 



\ 



.'- 



• » m 



• • • « • ■ 

• « • 






• • 



« • V » t 



HENEY MOEELAND STANLEY 

IN MEMORY OF GREAT KINDNESS SHOWN 
TO ITS AUTHOR 



PREFACE. 



I BELIEVE a negro potentate once observed, with regard 
to the encroachments of the Anglo-Saxon race, that first 
came the missionary, then the merchant, and finally the 
British soldier. An almost analogous case to political 
conquest is the occupation by science of new fields of 
research. The pioneer is a man of the Livingstone or 
Stanley type, who rapidly traverses an unknown region, 
braves its dangers and endures its privations, and points 
out to his successors where his discoveries may be best 
taken up and worked out in detail. 1 trust, therefore, 
that as Mr. Stanley may claim to have been the great 
missionary of knowledge on the Congo, so I, in following 
humbly in his steps, may rank as the merchant who has 
brought back for the world's inspection some samples from 
the unworked mines of information, whose presence the 
great explorer could discover, but whose wealth he had 
perforce to leave behind him on his rapid march. I have 
not ventured to make this work a record of novel explora- 
tion, for I visited few places that were not already 
explored ; nor of scientific research, for I lack the necessary 
ability. I have merely tried to produce with pen and 
brush an ordinary guide-book to the Congo, which may 
convey to intending travellers or stay-at-home folks a 
fairly just impression of the main fea\.\3LX^^ qI ^^ ^^'^ 



VI PREFACE. 

river. All that is written or drawn within has been 
directly done from Nature, and the faultiness in it arises 
more from incompleteness of detail than from incorrect 
outline. Nearly the entirety of the book has been compiled 
in the midst 'of my studying-ground. Many of the 
chapters here are reproduced exactly as they were jotted 
down in pencil, either when stopping to rest in some 
shady spot, or as I glided along the river in a canoe. All 
the illustrations have been photographed directly from 
my drawings, twenty-three of them being absolute fac- 
similes reproduced by the Typographic Etching Company. 

H. H. Johnston. 

London, February, 1884. 



PEEFACE TO FOUETH AND CHEAP EDITION. 



Eleven years nearly from the date of the first publication 
of this book I am asked by the publishers to put my name 
to a specially-prepared fourth edition which will be issued 
at a cheaper rate. During these eleven years greater 
changes have occurred in the Basin of the Eiver Congo 
than in any other part of the Dark Continent. The 
African International Association has developed by 
degrees into the Congo Free State under the Sovereignty 
of the King of the Belgians, and finally into a Belgian 
Colony. The Arabs have been conquered and almost 
expelled from the Congo Basin. Stations have been 
established on all the great confluents of the Congo 
and on the main river itself up to within a short 



PREFACE. Vll 

distance of Bangweolo. Mr. Stanley, after completing his 
gigantic work in founding the Congo Free State, traversed 
that unknown country between the Congo and the Nile 
in his search for Emin Pasha, and then returned to 
England to marry and settle down in the enjoyment of a 
reputation which will be found in future centuries scarcely 
second to that of Columbus. 

I myself have never set eyes on the Lower Congo since I 
left it in June 1883, though I have since travelled over 
that plateau in East Central Africa which gives rise to the 
main stream of this greatest of African rivers. A con- 
siderable portion of the Upper Congo has been placed 
under the British Flag and is now administered by the 
British South Africa Chartered Company. Our interests 
in this great river and in the welfare of the Congo Free 
State are now not only geographical but political. The 
Anglo-Congo Agreement has set at rest any rivalry or 
differences of opinion between the British and Belgian 
Authorities who are cordially working side by side in the 
suppression of the Slave Trade. By this Agreement the 
British are given a right to carry their Trans-Continental 
Telegraph line along the west shore of Lake Tanganyika 
and thence up to the British Protectorate on the Upper 
NHe. 

This remarkable development, which has taken place in 
what is after all only a small slice of my own lifetime, 
may interest some few of my readers in this old record of 
my experiences on the Congo at a time when Stanley's 
work was first beginning. I have left this record but 
little altered, preferring that the public should read the 
somewhat artless descriptions of a very young man, rather 
than a remodelled and more staid treatise wliich might 
lose its sense of actuality. I have, oi cowx^^, e,OTt<b^\fc^'5^ 



Vlll PREFACE. 

obvious inaccuracies, and where it is useful I have added 
a little new matter written in the light of fuller knowledge, 
and I have also cut out most of the scientific appendices 
as being out of date and no longer necessary in the much 
fuller knowledge which prevails of the fauna and flora of 
the Congo Basin. 

I trust the book in its new shape may prove acceptable 
especially to those who are just beginning to read about 
Africa. 

H. H. Johnston. 

London, January, 1895. 



NOTE. 



In the orthography of ail the African words in this book, I have 
followed a simple phonetic system. The consonants are to be pro- 
nounced as in English, and the vowels as in Italian or Portuguese, 
viz.: — 

a = ah ; e = eh ; i = ee ; 6 = aw (o = oh) ; u = oo. 

I have only diverged from this system where the proper names from 
long use have accustomed us to other spelling. Thus I write '* the 
River Congo" and "Angola," because for several centuries the 
Portuguese have spelt these names in the same manner. Properly, they 
should be, according to the simplest system, " Kongo " and " Ngola." 



LONDON 

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIJIITED, 
8TAMF0BD STRBBT ABD OHASINQ CK(M8. 



CONTENTS. 



-«o»- 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. — ^From SHo Paulo Dk Loanda to the Congo . 1 

II. — The Lower Congo — Banana Point to Vivi 22 

III. — Palabala and Yelala. .... 45 

IV. — Vivi to Isangila. . , , . . 66 

V. — Isangila to Manyanga .... 82 

VI. — Manyanga to L^opoldville (Stanley Pool) . 102 

VII. — Stanley Pool 121 

VIII. — Stanley Pool to the Kwa Biver. . .141 

IX.— To BoLOBO 157 

X. — MSUATA . . . . . . .176 

XI. — ^Homewards. 200 

XII. — Climate and Natural History . .216 

XIII. — Natural History 232 

XIV. — Natural History — Ornithology . , 248 

XV. — Natural History — ^Mammals . . . 258 

XVI. — The People of the Congo . . . .268 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



■•o*- 



PAOB 

Baobab coming into Leaf and Flower .... 3 

Hyph<ene Guinebnsis 7 

Pillar at Mus£ra 8 

Crows on the beach at Banana 17 

A«Kru-Boy" 19 

Mangrove Roots at Banana 20 

LiSSOCHILUS GlQANTEUS 23 

KiSANGB FROM THE RiVER 25 

POGONORHYNCUS (EOGASTER 28 

Vnn FROM THE ISANGILA ROAD 37 

The Lower Congo seen from Vivi 41 

Orchids 43 

MvOaJESDA GRANDIFLORA ....... 46 

Hen-house 47 

Congo House 48 

Mouth of Mposo River ....... 50 

Chief of Nguvi Mpanda 55 

DRAOiENA Sapochinowki ....... 57 

Yelala Falls 61 

Congo Grasses 67 

Baphia nitida 83 

First Isangila Fall 84 

Second Isangila Fall 85 

The Giant Kingfisher (Ceryle maxima) .... 90 

The River Congo seen from the Plateau at Manyanga . 95 



XIV 



LIST OF ILLU8TBATI0N8. 



Mlongo-mlako, King op Dandanga 

The "Widowed One" 

A WILD Pine-apple . 

Sceneby neab Lutete 

The Port op L^poldville 

Floating reed island on Stanley Pool 

The Calamus Palm in Dipferent Stages 

" Brazzaville " 

Hyphcene palms 

An Inhabitant of EIimpoko 

A Queen op Kimpoko 

The northern end of Stanley Pool 

Map op Stanley Pool 

HyPHCHNE VENTRIC03A 

HiGH-wooDED Banks of Congo . 

PiSTIA STRATIOTES 

The Chief of Embe . 

The Friendly Village . 

House in Bolobo 

Euphorbia Hermentiana . 

The Shore at Mukemo . 

A Landscape on the Upper Congo 

Crinum Zeylanicum . 

The Island opposite Einshasua 

Camoensia Maxima 

A Python 



polypterus 
schizorhis gigantea 
Spur-winged Plover 
A Galago 
A CoBus Antelope 

1. MU-YANSI. 2. MU-TEKB. 3. Mu-SHI 

A Kktmba 

A M-buma, a Mu-yansi 



KONGO 



with 



Fruit 



158, 



PAUB 

98 
100 
103 
105 
119 
113 
121 
324 
131 
136 
137 
138 
140 
142 
143 
159 
161 
164 
172 
177 
182 
189 
207 
209 
217 
233 
241 
249 
257 
259 
266 
269 
277 
282 



LIST OF ILLU8TBATI0N8. 



XV 



Aktelope-horn 



An example of Cicatbisation . 

A Ba-teke Woman .... 

A Congo Sheep 

Ba-teke Ghaib 

1. Pottery of Upper Congo. 2. An 

Trumpet. 3. A Powder-flask 
A Native Lyre .... 
Ba-yansi Knives .... 
Ba-yansi Chopper, and Axe of Authority belonging to a 

Ba-teke Chief .... 
A Native of the Lower Congo 



PAOS 

287 
288 
293 
295 

296 
297 
298 

298 
300 



A JOUENEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 



CHAPTEE I. 

FKOM SAO PAULO DE LOANDA TO THE CONGO. 

Ambriz — Journey overland to Kinsembo — ^An African Dinner — 
Books as against Brandy — Descriphon of Kinsbmbo — The 
Calemma — ^Vegetation — Journey Overland to Mus£ra — A 
CURIOUS Monolith — Piiytography of South West Africa — 
The Desert Boundary of the Tropics — AmbrizAte — Baobabs 
— Floral Beauties — The Irade Route — The Natives and 
Annexation— Cabe^a da Cobra — The Bush at Cabe<ja da 
Cobra — The Jasmines — Ashirongo — The Congo — Its Mouth 
— Colour of the Water — Banana Point — Kruboys — Kru- 

MANOS and KaBINDAS — APPRENTICESHIP AND SLAVERY. 

In the month of October, 1882, I left Loanda to carry out 
a long-cherished idea of visiting the river Congo, to study- 
its little-known natural history, and to endeavour to por- 
tray as accurately as possible the landscapes and inhabi- 
tants of lands which photography had not yet reached, 
and where no student of nature had ever penetrated. 

Having obtained a passage on board a Dutch trading- 
steamer, I proceeded up the coast northwards to Ambriz, 
the last possession of the Portuguese province of Angola,* 
and lying distant from Loanda some sixty miles. When 
we reached this place, early in the morning, I left the 
steamer for a time, intending to journey some distance 

* Since the date when this was written, Portuguese territory has 
been extended from Ambriz to the mouth of the Congo ; though all 
the land north of Anibiiz is placed within the Free Trade area of the 
Congo Bafiin. — H. U. J. 



/ 



2 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVEE CONGO. 

along the coast by hammock, in order to gain a closer 
acquaintance with the character of the country that here 
borders the sea. Carriers are not always easily obtained 
at Ambriz, and they were even more difficult to secure at 
this particular time, for they found such lucrative work 
in bringing coffee from the interior to the merchants' 
stores that they little cared for the more fatiguing task of 
carrying a white man in a hammock to Kinsembo. The 
day passed in listless and hopeless waiting at the house 
of an English trader, and I began to think it would be 
necessary to resign myself to the disagreeable thought of 
passing a night with the fleas and mosquitoes which 
Ambriz lavishes on" all new-comers ; but as the sun began 
to sink very near the sea horizon, a sufficient number of 
men were collected one by one, a hammock was borrowed, 
and I gladly shook the dust of Ambriz off my feet, and 
settled comfortably into the half-drowsy state which the 
swaying motion of the hammock produces. Our path lay 
for some distance along the seashore, right in amongst the 
foam of the breakers, whose deafening roar made the ears 
ring. Here safe from their cruel force, on dear Mother 
Earth, I could look with wonder and interest on the 
irresistible roll and terrible rebound of the waves, which 
render landing on these unprotected coasts almost im- 
possible in anything but a surf-boat. Half-an-hour's jog- 
trot on the part of the men brought us to the river Lege 
(Nloji), which at present (1883) is the northern boundary 
of the Portuguese possessions in Lower Guinea. The 
clumps of mangrove which border its narrow mouth are 
very fine and picturesque, and afford shelter to many 
water birds, which were busily fishing for their evening 
meal whilst we waited to cross the river. A native canoe 
came from the opposite side, and ferried us over in two 
journeys ; and then, leaving the river, we passed through 
several black and fetid marshes, where the branches of the 
mangroves grew so low that they often took me by the 
chin and nearly jerked me out of the hammock. 

As the ground grew more solid and strong, forests of 
" candelahTa " euphorbias, ugly, bewitched-looking things, 



FHOM SAO PAULO DE LOANDA TO TBE CONGO. 



V 



3r 



ZJMF ASJ> VLOWZB. 



lined the way, and cou- 
tiniied to be the only 
vegetation visible till we 
roiiclied Kinsembo. Here, 
naturally, I was received 
with that cordial welcome 
and hearty liospitality 
which are extended by 
all English traders in 
• West Africa to the stranger, no 
matter what his position or nation- 
ality may be. In a comfortable, 
airy room, with an organ at one 
end, and many pictures on the 
walls, we sat down, friends of five 
minutes' standing, to as good a 
dinner as the tinned provisions of 
Kinsembo could produce. 

In this place, where native food 

IK aluLiist non-existent, save au Wjca.- 

o WTO sional water-tuck. (^CoVoa wn'w^us^ 



•^% 



4 A JOUENEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

or a dish of little rock oysters, the European inhabitants 
live nearly exclusively on provisions sent out from 
England, and live well withal. It takes a stranger to the 
coast quite by surprise to see the excellence and variety of 
these preserves ; and except that one longs occasionally 
for a little fresh salad, the bill of fare presented by the 
great purveyors of tinned provisions is quite an appetising 
one in Africa. On one of the evenings spent at Kinsembo, 
we had a dinner much as follows, the menu of which I 
append for the consolation of such of my readers as may 
be proceeding to the West Coast of Africa. 





Mock Turtle Soup. 




Salmon Cutlets. 




Lobster. 




Curried Rabbit. 


Roast Beef. 


Boiled Mutton. 




(with preserved potatoes). 




Game patty. 




Asparagus. 




Plum Pudding. 


Peaches. 


Strawberries. 


Tea. 


Biscuits. 



All these things, except the rice eaten with the curry, 
came out of tins, and the plum-pudding and asparagus 
were especially good. 

All merchants on the coast do not live thus ; it is only 
among the English trading-houses that the employers 
feed their employes so well. On the other hand, it is with 
sorrow to be confessed that amongst the English traders 
insobriety still lingers, although latterly this evil has been 
successfully combated by the generous supply of good 
aerated drinks, and light German beer. In Africa alcohol 
is less needed than anywhere else, and it is good nourishing 
food that is required to restore the impoverished blood, not 
fiery, fever-giving drinks. The mental depression con- 
sequent on the enervating climate is more healthily 
dispersed by interesting and entertaining literature, 



FBOM SAO PAULO* DE LOANDA TO THE CONGO. 5 

especially when this is enjoyed together with a cup of 
fragrant coffee, than by the continual glasses of grog, the 
"nips" of brandy, the "gins and bitters," the "mata- 
bichos," and " chin-chins," which, to react on the deadening 
senses, have to be continually increased in alcoholic strength. 
If, as one who has visited most parts of the West African 
Coast, from the Gambia to Mossamedes, and enjoyed 
hospitality from many of the great African trading 
companies, I might give a word of advice to their 
managers in Europe : I would say, *' Send out plenty of 
books. Eemember that the mind in Africa runs more 
risk of being starved than the body, and that for those to 
whom the wonderful country in which they are residing 
does not itself seem a great book spread open for them to 
read by Mother Nature, the flagging spirits, the fatal 
home-sickness, and the dull depression of the brain are 
best diverted, not by constant sips of spirits, but by bright 
novels, by humorous essays, and by the fairy-tales of 
science that our current literature can so readily supply." 
Then, when the oil-lamp is lit, and the dusky African 
night is chased even from the windows by the bright 
reiSections in the glass, the pale and languid European can 
forget the strange weird things outside — the marshes with 
their low, white, poisonous mist, the riotous "niggers" 
dancing round their fires, streaming and gleaming with 
perspiration, the great night -moths and the uncomely 
bats — ^in the beautiful creations and merry thoughts of 
our master-minds. In having chosen Kinsembo for the 
text of this disquisition I have not meant to imply that 
the worthy Englishmen there are more inclined to 
alcoholic consolation than elsewhere. Quite the contrary, 
in fact ; and I am glad to say that it is for that reason a 
brighter place than many I know of farther north ; but as 
it is one of the few great trading settlements that I 
encounter on my way to the Congo, I seize this oppor- 
tunity of making known what, as an old African, I feel 
to be a distinct and easily remedied want amongst the 
English "factories" in West Africa — more books, less 
brandy. 



G A SOVHi^EY tJP Tffi! ttlVEtt OONOO. 

Kinsembo is a flourishing place as regards trade, and 
has doubtless diverted much of the coffee, ivory, and 
india-rubber which should have come to Ambriz, for it 
was formed by the settlement of many trading houses who 
left Ambriz and Portuguese Africa in order to be free 
from import and export duties. 

The different buildings of Kinsembo all stand on the 
summit of a range of high red cliffs, which end at the 
mouth of a little river in a long rocky point. This river, 
of course, has a sand bar, otherwise its mouth would form 
the harbour so sadly needed. As it is, both the landing 
and embarking of cargo is attended with considerable 
risk, as the breakers are almost more to be dreaded here 
than anywhere on the . south-west coast. In the time of 
" calemma " (the Portuguese give this name to the great 
roll which every now and then comes across the Atlantic) 
the beach of Kinsembo is a grand sight to see — from the 
cliffs above. Wave after wave comes in like a race-horse, 
dashes itself on the beach, gathers itself up, and rolls back 
again to meet the one that follows. Sometimes these 
waves will come in one on top of the other, but generally 
it is every third wave which is the worst, and, after this 
giant billow has expended its force, there is an interval of 
comparative calm, in which the anxious boatmen strive 
to put off. Landing in a '* calemma " is, I believe, less 
dangerous than putting out to sea. It is, however, a 
mauvais quart d^heure, full of suppressed excitement and 
anxiety. The great surf-boat, with neither bow nor stern 
so that it can go backwards or forwards at will, highly 
recurved at both ends, and like the crescent moon in shape, 
is steered by a man standing upright in the seaward end 
of the boat, and using as his rudder a long paddle. He 
approaches to within a certain distance from the shore, 
and then, after cautiously waiting his time, selects a big 
roller and rides in with irresistible speed on to the beach, 
where the boat is immediately seized by the rowers, who 
have jumped out, and hauled up out of reach ere the 
retreating wave can roll it back to destruction. 

Kinsembo is not quite so barren as the Ambriz coast, 



fSOM SAO PAULO ns LOANDA TO 'THE GOi^GO. t 

but vegetation ia still very sparse. Hyphoene palms, 
liowaver, make their appearance here as you approach this 
region from the south, and there are also strangely stunted 
baobabs (by some thought to be a different species) growing 
on the cliffs, and a coarse-looking convolvulus stri^glea 
over the sea-shore, intermixed with the Calabar bean. 

The usual park-like scenery of the interior is some six 
miles distant from the sea coast. Kinsembo is one of the 
first points proceeding 
northwards from Angola, 
where the influence of 
the Congo region begins 
to be felt. The few 
native tribes more re- 
semble the Ba-Kongo in 
their dialects than the 
neighbouring Ambundu 
people to the south. 

The journey overland 
to Musera, the next tra- 
ding settlement, occupies 
about five hours' travel- 
ling on foot or in a ham- 
mock, but I spent some 
time longer on the way, 
as I stopped to sketch _ 
the curious pillar of Mu- \r^p^ I//, / 
s^ra, a great pointed j"' ' . 

stone, poised on a smooth I — I 

slab of rock, and crown- Hypfume Ouineinns, 

ing the top of a small 

eminence, from whence it is visible a long way off, both 
inland and out at sea, I cannot guess at the cause of 
this curious monolith, except that I think it improbable 
that it owes its origin and position to any act of man. 
There are many similar stones in different parts of the 
Lower Congo countries. There is a little vegetation at 
the base of the low hill on which the pillar stands, but, 
it ia the usual euphorbia aud aloe mixtuTC, a&i "Onfiw. ""a 




8 A JOURNEY UP THE ItlVER OONQO. 

no bush capable of affording shade, so I made my sketcli 
of the monolith as quickly as possible, and then hurried 
on once more through the blazing sun. We passed by 
many plantations of manioc, and emeiged at last on the 
sea-shore, where, sheltered by a few low jasmine bushes, I 
halted for a short time to rest and refresh myself with a 




PlLLAn AT MlBf.RA 



frugal lunch ; after which I started once more and reached 
the Dutch factory • at Mus^ra in time for dinner. 

The country round this settlement is much like Kin- 
sembo in character. The same coarse grass, sparsely 

• All the trading eBtablislimeiits on the West African Coast me 
called " factoricB," more in the sense of Ihe Portusueao word " feitoria," 
i» pJace of buBiness. 



FROM SAO PAULO DK LOANDA TO THE CONGO, 9 

scattered bushes, and euphorbias; but here the rich 
vegetation of the interior is only three miles from the 
coast, and as the reader will notice, it is gradually 
approaching the sea, until at Cabefa da Cobra the last 
traces of desert influence will vanish and a tropical wealth 
of flora reassert its sway. 

There are certain curious points in the phytography of 
South-Western Africa which are best shown in this 
accompanying map. I have endeavoured here to exhibit 
more clearly the distribution and comparative abundance 
of vegetation which may be observed in travelling over 
Western Tropical Africa, and more especially in the 
country l3dng between the river Cunene and the Upper 
Congo. From Sierra Leone to the river Ogowe along the 
coast the one prevailing landscape is that of endless 
forest. This is, in fact, part of the forest region — the 
forest belt which has a distinctive fauna and flora, and 
which extends eastward, near the equator, more than half- 
way across Africa to Lake Victoria Nyanza and the 
western shores of Tanganika. This is the country of the 
anthropoid apes, which are found equally near Sierra 
Leone, and on the Welle, and near the Upper Nile. But 
when the mouth of the Ogowe is passed, the forest begins 
to retreat from the coast,* and is gradually succeeded by 
more open savannah scenery, so characteristic of the 
major part of Africa, and so happily described by older 
travellers as "park-like," a designation which its open 
grassy spaces and formal groups of shady trees amply 
justify. Such is the country at Loango, Kabinda, and 
along the Lower Congo up to Stanley Pool. But a little 
to the south of the Congo embouchure the park-like 
scenery in its turn begins to retire from the sea, some- 
where about Cabefa da Cobra, a place I have already 
mentioned, and there follows a much uglier region of 
sparse vegetation and less abundant rainfall. Of such is 
the country around Loanda, where scarcely anything but 
euphorbias, baobabs, and aloes are growing, and where 

* Except where it follows the courses oi xwets. 



10 A JOtlRiJEt tip fnH MVER CON 00, 

there is often less than two months' rain in the yeai*. 
This harsh country continues along the coast for some 
distance until about the 13th parallel, where it in its turn 
trends off towards the interior, and absolute desert takes 
its place and continues uninterruptedly as far as the 
Orange Eiver. In a journey from Mossamedes to the 
river Cunen6, in 15°-16° S. latitude, you may successively 
pass through these three last phases of scenery, and after 
crossing a zone of absolute desert, enter a region of sparse 
vegetation, and finally arrive at the beautiful undulating 
country of scattered forest and grassy plains which only 
reaches the sea as far north as the Congo mouth. The 
four districts I have just described may be said to vary 
from almost absolute sterility to transcendent richness of 
vegetation : perhaps the word sterility is hardly a true one, 
as the desert soil is quite capable of producing ample 
crops; it is merely the rainfall that is lacking. The 
sandy wastes between Mossamedes and the Orange Eiver 
grow little but the strange Welwitschia miraUlis and a 
few stunted Bauhinias; in the succeeding region the 
euphorbias and aloes are the principal occupants of the 
soil, with an occasional baobab, mimosa, or fig. In the 
park-like country the forest trees are too numerous and 
varied to catalogue; but amongst them may be noticed 
the beautiful Hyphoene palm, the oil-palm as far as 10° S., 
the cotton wood, the baobab, gigantic mimosas, figs, and a 
variety of splendid trees belonging to the papilionaceous 
order. This is the most typical region of Africa, and it is 
the country of the large game animals. The rhinoceroses, 
zebras, giraflPes and many antelopes never enter the forest 
belt that clothes so much of Western Africa, and which is 
the grand climax of vegetable development where, with 
ample space, continual rain, and an equatorial sun, plant- 
life flourishes and rules supreme above the animal world. 

There is a curious resemblance as regards sterility and 

paucity of rainfall between the coasts of South- West 

Africa, West Australia and Western South America. 

They are all more or less of a desert character, whereas 

Queensland, South-Eaat Africa and Brazil are richly 



rnOM SAO PAULO DE LOANDA TO THE CONGO. H 

endowed with vegetation. Further, it is an interesting 
fact, and one which can only be briefly noticed here, that 
in looking over a physical map of the world, one cannot 
fail to remark how, both north and south of the equator, 
the tropical is separated from the temperate zone by a more 
or less well-defined region of desert or barren steppe. The 
Sahara, the deserts of Syria, Arabia, Persia and Sinde ; the 
great desert of Gobi, and the barren wastes in China and 
Thibet separate the fertile regions of temperate Europe, 
Africa, and Asia from the zone of tropical rain, just as 
in North America, almost in the same latitudes, are 
salt plains, deserts, and the hideous lifeless tracts in 
Northern Mexico. South of the equator, we have in 
South America the desert of Atacama and the grassy 
steppes of the Gran Chaco, and of the northern states of 
the Argentine Eepublic ; the sterility of Central Australia, 
and finally, in South Africa, the Kalahari Desert which 
extends northwards to Mossamedes, and makes its influence 
felt on the western coast line nearly to the vicinity of the 
Congo. 

I rejoined the Dutch steamer at Musera and proceeded 
to Ambrizete, where there are many factories belonging 
to English, French, and Dutch companies. The inland 
scenery at about a mile from the coast is beautiful and 
park-like, though near the shore it is still a sandy tract 
with scanty vegetation. This soon yields to beautiful 
prairies, dotted with clumps of fine trees and radiant with 
many wild flowers, principally yellow ground orchids, 
white Conimelynce, and bright saffron-coloured convolvuli. 
The baobabs (Adansonia) in the distance seem to be 
fine stout beech-trees in an English park, and their 
leaves are tender and green, just budding out under the 
October rains. From their branches, hanging straight 
down by a thread-like stalk, are the fair white blossoms 
with wax- like petals and a mass of feathery, filamentous 
stamens. These flowers soon drop, and their snowy white- 
ness is tarnished with yellow stains and bruises as they 
lie in heaps at the foot of the swollen, gouty trunk. The 
" calabash,*' the large fruit that slAgWly Te^^Tci\S^^^ *Oafe 



12 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVEH CONGO. 

outer husk of the cocoa-nut in shape, remains on the tree 
simultaneously with the freshly opened flowers, and looks 
much like a large bat, folded in its wings and hanging to 
the branches. Thirsty with my noonday wandering under 
the sparse shade that the half-open leaves afforded, I 
jumped at a calabash, dragged it down and broke it open. 
Then I took out the pinky-white pith and chewed it, 
finding therein a most pleasant, thirst-quenching acid. 
The monkeys are very fond of this pith ; so much so that 
the fruit of the baobab is sometimes called monkey bread. 
Adansonia digitata, the "Imbundeiro " of the Portuguese, 
the tree generally known as " baobab " (through whence 
this name comes, I know not), ranges over all Africa 
between the Sahara and the Kalahari Desert, and an 
allied species is found in Australia. Roughly speaking, 
it is a huge mallow, and is rather a gigantic plant than 
a tree, for the interior of its great swollen trunk is all 
spongy pith and not firm wood. 

The candelabra euphorbias, so common on the Angola 
coast, still linger on about Ambriz, although they are 
handsomer and glossier in this more favoured region, and 
have lost that dingy colour and distorted form that 
characterise them farther south.* The aloes are all in 
blossom, and their tall, orange-red flower-spikes make a 
very pretty point amid the yellow orchids and the yellow- 
green grass. The river at Ambrizete is picturesque, its 
mangrove woods are exceptionally fine, and as the ground 
rises to some height inland a fine view of the stream may 
be obtained as it meanders sluggishly through massive 
groves. On the snags by the water-side many aquatic 
birds are perched, and up the steep river banks there is 
plenty of greenery amid which stand out, like hawthorn 
in May, the snowy sprays of jasmine flowers which fill the 
air with such a balmy perfume. In the shallow pools and 
marshes are "mud-fish.''t I notice them here for the 
first time so far south. 

* The candelabra euphorbia {Euphorbia candelabrum) is never 
found farther northward on the south-west coast, or anywhere on 
t;Iie Congo, "f Anophthalimis, 



FIWM SAO PAULO DE LUANDA TO THE CONGO. 13 

The Ambrizete Eiver (which is properly called Nbrish) 
has rather a long course, and rises some little distance 
south-east of Sao Salvador on a plateau 2500 feet high, 
whence it descends in magnificent cascades, called the 
" Arthington Falls," into the plain below, and wends a 
tortuous way to the sea. Its upper waters were first 
visited and described by one of the Baptist missionaries 
from Sao Salvador, and he named its falls after a well- 
known English philanthropist. 

As Ambriz is the great coffee port, so Ambrizete is the 
outlet for the ivory trade, and has been for many years. 
As the reader will see farther on, the ivory road starts 
irom Stanley Pool, passes through Sao Salvador and 
debouches at Ambrizete. From Ambrizete, or some 
neighbouring settlement, the pine-apple has been intro- 
duced along the trade routes far into the interior of the 
southern Congo region, and it is probable that limes, 
oranges, maize, sugarcane, manioc, and many other recent 
additions to native agriculture originally started from here, 
where the Portuguese traders brought them from Brazil, 
and, following the arterial trade routes, quickly overran 
these hitherto poorly-fed countries. 

The natives of Ambrizete are very turbulent,* and 
decidedly opposed to any idea of annexation or protection 
by a European power.f For this reason no white man is 
allowed to penetrate more than a few miles into the 
interior from Ambrizete, and scientific explorations are 
indistinguishable in their eyes from political recon- 
naissances. In this way the region lying between Sao 
Salvador and the coast, vaguely named Ngoje, remains a 
terra incognita to Europeans. Wending my way north- 
wards from Ambrizete 1 touched at different spots where 
factories were established, but none of them offered any- 
thing worthy of note until I reached a small settlement 
about fifty miles south of the Congo, called Cabe^a da 
Cobra (the " head of the snake "). This to my long-starved 

* Tbis is the upinioii of the white lialers, but the natives might 
tay, OD their side, that they only Btood ui> for their independencie, 
t They have since (1885) accepted FortU'ivxese i\x\«. 



14 A JOUBNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

eyes seemed a charming place. At last the hideous 
influence of the south coast was over, and a rich and 
varied vegetation grew down to the very waves. 

There was a stretch of low-lying land about a mile or 
less in width, immediately next the sea, overgrown with 
dense bush, and, in fact, a sort of natural botanical garden 
with many specimens of the African flora displayed with 
prodigal abundance. There were groups of umbrageous 
trees (some of them handsome species of papilionacere 
with violet laburnum-like blossoms *) offering a welcome 
and unaccustomed shade, where, seated amidst a trellis- 
work of creepers on a dry carpet of fallen leaves and 
fading blossonJs, you could dreamingly inhale the strong 
fragrant perfume which the ardent sun drew from the 
clustering jasmine that thrust itself into these pleasant 
arbours. There are apparently two species of jasmine 
growing here ; one has a somewhat pinky flower with 
shiny leaves and thorny stem, is very common throughout 
Angola,t and grows independently in large bushes, and 
the other has a much larger, pure-white, and stephanotis- 
like blossom, is without thorns, and seemingly a creeper 
in its habits,J clambering high up over the trees, and 
raining down its lovely star-like flowers in long trailing 
sprays. 

In the background behind all this greenery the land 
abruptly rises, and seems to be a row of ancient cliffs 
from which the sea has retreated and whence the rain has 
washed down the loose surface soil that forms this verdant 
garden of the underclifif. Their summits are bare and 
worn from the constant denudation, but about half a mila 
inland a rich vegetation once more takes possession of 
the soil. 

The natives in the neighbourhood of Cabefa da Cobra 

* Lonchocarj)us sp. inc. In some glades of the woods the ground 
beneath these trees was covered with a pinky-mauve sheet of their 
fallen flowers. 

t I have never seen this jasmine (Corissa sp.) farther north on the 
Congo. 

} Probably Jasminum auriculatum. 



FROM SAO PAULO BE LOANDA TO THE CONGO. 15 

are Ashirongo* a degraded tribe, with dull black skins 
and poor physical development, that extends to the Lower 
Congo as far as Boma, but principally inhabits the marshy 
country along its southern bank near the sea. 

Some time before we reach the Congo the red cliffs, 
which are such a constant feature in the South- West 
African coast, sink lower and lower, and give place at 
length to mighty mangrove swamps of considerable ex- 
tent. Then the sea becomes coloured by the sediment of 
the river, and the contrast is sharply marked where the 
cloudy river water meets the clear sea. The colour of 
the Congo water is dark-brownish red, and that of the sea 
transparent green ; the temperature of the two waters is 
also different — that .of the Congo registering 83° Fahrenheit, 
and the sea water 74°, a difference of nine degrees. 

The mouth of the Congo is comparatively simple and 
undivided when compared with the great deltas of the 
Nile, the Niger, and the Zambezi. In fact, this is one of 
the first impressions which gives an air of " newness " to 
the river, and suggests that its present outlet into the 
Atlantic Ocean may not be of very ancient date. That 
the Congo in many directions is trying to force its way to 
the sea by means of smaller branches I am inclined 
to believe, as many of its so-called " creeks '* between 
Boma and the sea, though at present remaining blind 
alleys, yet have gained in length in the memory of the 
European settlers on the Lower Congo, and it is the 
opinion of some who know the country that the river may 
ultimately force a way to the sea at Kabinda by means of 
a branch outlet from Boma (the present " Crocodile " river 
behind the settlement). The aspect of the mouth of the 
Congo with its two opposite points of Padrao and Banana 
is rather curious. They seem like the last fragments of 
the ancient coast-line through which the river has broken. 
Point Padrao is a spit of marshy land covered with 
splendid forest and fringed with breakwaters of mangrove 
and clumps of beautiful Fan palms.f Banana Point is a 

* Possibly a corruption of Ashikongo, 
t Hyphonne Guineensis, 



16 A JOURNEY UP THE llIVEPi CONGO. 

little peninsula of sand, which on one side is lashed by 
the breakers of the Atlantic, and on the other meets the 
brunt of the mighty Congo. Its existence is only saved 
or prolonged by rows of stakes driven into the shore- 
while the beach is raised and fortified by masses of large 
stones. Why such an unmeaning name was given to this 
sandy prom6ntory by the Dutch, who first christened it, I 
do not know ; certainly it is no longer applicable, for not 
a banana is to be seen growing there. However, the name 
sticks to it, and is known far and wide now, for Banana is 
an important settlement, and is likely to become so in the 
future development of the Congo, on account of being the 
only good and safe harbour at its mouth. On this narrow 
strip of land, where space is as valuable as in some civilized 
cities, there are three separate factories of which that 
belonging to the Dutch Company is by far the largest and 
most important. On the ground occupied by this estab- 
lishment many handsome palms are planted, to aid with 
their roots in keeping the loose soil together. Where the 
peninsula is joined to the mainland it is all overgrown 
with giant mangroves and is very marshy in character, 
being to all intents and purposes an island, for it is im- 
possible to reach the high ground beyond, otherwise than 
by water. • On the inner side of the little promontory is a 
deep and capacious inlet of the Congo, where there is 
room for a whole navy to be moored. Here ships of 
the greatest size can be anchored within fifty yards of 
the shore. 

The Dutch trading company of the Nieuwe Afri- 
kaansche Handels Genootschap, occupies nearly half 
Banana Point, and its site is healthy, for the narrowing 
strip of land is swept by the sea breezes, and all the 
washed-up refuse of the shore, together with the garbage 
thrown out of the houses, is soon gobbled up by the scapu- 
lated crows. These useful birds are wisely protected at 
Banana, and are in consequence very tame, assembling in 
numbers on the sandy shore to demolish and consume all 
putrefying matter that the land-crabs are too slow to eat. 
The Dutch establishment is very large, and the white 



FSOM SAO PAULO DE LOAlfSA TO THE CONGO. 19 

employes are perhaps nearly forty in number. Kraboys, 
Kranianoa, and Kabindaa are used for all the ruder labour 
in the faetoriea and ateataers belonging to this company, 
and there are probably from three to four hundred of 
these " niggers " in the employ of the Dutch at Banana 
Point. There is a subtle diatiuction between Kruhoy and 
Krumxin, or, to use its Portuguese form, Krumano. The 
Kruboy comea from Sierra Leone * and the Liberian coast, 
and ia much Bought for through- 
out West Africa aa an invaluable 
labourer well worthy of hia hire. 
He is very independent and in- 
variably returns home at the 
expiration of his term of ser- 
vice, and lives a rollicking life 
amongst his relatives before he 
re-engt^ea. The "Kruman" is 
an artificial name given to the 
indigenous alavea of the country 
— men, for instance, of the 
Lower Congo tribes, that are 
sold by their chiefs to European 
merchants, who, in order to avoid 
shocking British susceptibilities, 
call them by the Portuguese 
rendering of Kruman (or Kru- 
boy) — viz. Krumano. Then 
"Krumanos" are also obtained 
by other means than payment. If a native in these 
countries ateals from a white man, he ia compelled to 
become his slave, unless hia people are prepared to pay 
a large indemnity. Naturally, in nme cases out of ten, 
they do not care to do so, so the unhappy "nigger" 
who has been caught stealing a handful of tobacco or a 
piece of cloth (perhaps spread out as a bait) becomes the 
slave of the white man he has robbed. Such ia the custom 
of the country, and one that seems to meet everybody's 
• Those at Sierra Laone ate rather a separate colou-j ^itravftia'^.sM. 
Gountrv, which lies to the east of Idbeiia. 




20 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

views just at preaeDt. The native chief rules over a great 
number of subjects, and can easily part with one or two 
if " squared," aud the wliite man stands greatly in need of 
black servants — not independent freemen like Kraboys 
or Kabindas, tliat will leave him to return to their own 
country just as they are getting to know his ways ; but a 
submissive slave that has no choice but to follow his 




master everywhere and remain with him always, knowing 
well what he may expect if he runs away — and is caught. 
Slavery certainly exists on the Lower Congo, as much as 
it ever did ; • the only difference is that it is internal, so 
to speak, and that owing to the vigilance of British 

* This, of course, waa written in 1683, find before the ealabliah- 
ment of the Congo Free State. I let it aCuid aa a picture of what 



FROM SAO PAULO DE LOANDA TO THE CONGO. 21 

cruisers and the absence of a lucrative market now-a-days, 
slaves are no longer exported from the Congo as in former 
days. And slavery will continue to exist, no matter 
under what name, as long as European merchants stand 
sorely in need of labour, and native chiefs are willing to 
"apprentice'' or sell their superfluous subjects for an 
important consideration in gin, cloth, or guns. Any 
traveller who visits the factories on the Lower Congo — 
except perhaps in those belonging to the English — may 
see groups of slaves in chains who are so punished for 
having run away, and if he arrives at a time when a slave 
has just been recaptured — possibly by his own relatives, 
who have brought him cheerfully back, sure of a reward — 
he will have an apportunity of studying the application 
of the formidable cow-hide whips to the runaway's skin, 
and see the blood spirt from his well-flogged back. As a 
rule, I am bound to say the Krumanos are kindly treated. 
They are well fed, and have their wives and children 
often with them in their huts. If they were allowed to 
regain their liberty at the end of seven years of service, 
without being forced to renew their contract, there would 
not be so much harm in this system. The Portuguese 
method of government apprenticeship is one tolerably free 
from abuses, and would work well on the Congo. 



23 4 JOUSNEY UP TEE BIVEU CONGO. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE LOWER CONGO — BANANA POINT TO VIVI. 

KiSANGE — The Fobest — Lissochilus giganteus — The Lagoons and 
THEIR Inhabitants — A Vegetable Venice— Birds — ^A Native 
Village — Pets — Antelopes — A Crocodile Adventure — Ponta 
DA liENHA — The River forming its Delta — Boma — Under- 
HiLL— MusuKA — Hell's Cauldron — A Visit to Stanley — 
Belgiqub Creek — Vivi — Stanley and the Natives — ^Thb 
Dinner Party— One of STANiiEY's Stations — ^Life at Vivi. 

Early in December 1882, 1 started to ascend the Congo 
on a Dutch steamer, the Moriaan, and made my first halt 
at Kisange, which is a small trading settlement some 
twenty-one miles from the sea on the south bank of the 
Congo, and admirably situated for a naturalist who wishes 
to study the rich swampy region of the Lower Congo with 
comparative ease and comfort. Here I spent three most 
pleasant weeks, enjoying the kind hospitality of Senhor 
Eibeiro at the Dutch factory. Indeed I have since re- 
gretted the shortness of my stay, as there was such 
abundant material for study, and at the same time so 
many facilities for working in the midst of one's field of 
research without undergoing privations or unnecessary 
fatigue. Away from the temporary and feeble clearings 
that the few commercial houses have made is grand 
majestic forest towering up into the sky, and displaying 
the most splendid effects which a rich and fantastic foliage, 
a brilliant colouring of varied greens, and a weird archi- 
tecture of contorted and massive trunks can produce. 

Our adjectives are too puny to describe fitly the vegeta- 
tion of such places as Kisange. We want to express 
ourselves in the tongues of Central Africa^ which have 




MixKhiiut ^antevif. 



21 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

sometimes seven different terms to express different kinds 
of forest. Beyond the actual inclosures of the factories 
here, there is a splendour of vegetable growth that defies 
an adequate rendering either with the brush or the pen. 
The hot sun and the oozy mud call into existence a plant 
life which must parallel in rank luxuriance and monstrous 
growth the forests of the coal measures, and reproduce for 
our eyes in these degenerate days somewhat of the majesty 
of the vegetable kingdom in bygone epochs. 

In the marshy spots, down near the river shore, are 
masses of that splendid orchid, Lissochilus giganteus, a 
terrestrial species that shoots up often to the height of six 
feet from the ground, bearing such a head of red-mauve, 
golden-centred blossoms as scarcely any flower in the 
world can equal for beauty and delicacy of form. These 
orchids, with their light-green, spear-like leaves, and their 
tall swaying flower-stalks, grow in groups of forty and 
fifty together, often reflected in the shallow pools of 
stagnant water round their bases, and filling up the fore- 
ground of the high purple-green forest with a blaze of 
tender peach-like colour, upon which, I should have 
thought, no European could gaze unmoved. Yet the 
Portuguese merchants who lived among this loveliness 
scarcely regarded it, and laughed at the eagerness with 
which I gathered and painted this " capim " — this mere 
grass or reed, as they call it. 

Clumps of a dwarf palm, Phmnix spinosa, which bears 
a just-eatable starveling date, hedge in these beautiful 
orchids from the wash of the river, and seem a sort of 
water-mark that the tides rarely pass : but the water often 
leaks through the mud and vegetable barrier, and forms 
inside the ring of dwarf palms many little quiet lagoons, 
not necessarily unhealthy, for the water is changed and 
stirred by each recurring tide; and in these lagoons 
bordered by orchids and tall bushes, with large spatulate 
leaves, and white shining bracts about their flower-stalks,* 
by pandanus, by waving oil-palms, and by mangrove trees 



THE LOWER CONOO— BANANA POINT TO VIVL 27 

poised on their many feet, and telling out against the 
shining sky with their lace-like tracery of leaves — in these 
quiet stretches of still water are the homes and feeding- 
grounds of myriad forms of life : of blue land-crabs, whose 
burrows riddle the black soil ; of always alert and agitated 
" mud-fish," * flapping and flopping through the ooze ; of 
tiny amethystine red-beaked kingfishers ; of kingfishers 
that are black and white, or large and grey and speckled ; 
of white egrets, of the brown and stork-like Scoptis 
urribretta; of spur- winged geese; and of all-devouring 
Gypohierax vultures. A rustling in the vegetation, and 
a large varanus lizard slips into the water ; or on some 
trampled bank a crocodile lies asleep in the warm sun, 
with a fixed smirk hanging about his grim muzzle. These 
lagoons are places seething with life — life that is ever 
stirring, striving and active — and when you suddenly 
arrive, slipping and splashing in the watery footholds, the 
sudden silence that greets you is rather the frightened 
expectant hush of a thousand apprehensive creatures. 
Beyond the lagoons and this strip of mud and water, rises 
an almost impenetrable barrier of forest, nearly impossible 
to pass by land, but which is fortunately pierced by many 
little arms or natural canals of the Congo that intersect it 
and penetrate to the firm dry land beyond. As you paddle 
gently in a native canoe through the watery alleys of this 
v^etable Venice, the majestic trees firmly interlaced 
above and overarching the canal, shrouding all in pale 
green gloom, the glimpses and vistas that you get through 
the forest reveal many beautiful forms of bird and insect 
life. Barbetsf with red foreheads and large notched bills 
are sitting in stupid meditation on the twigs, giving a harsh 
and mechanical squeak if the too near approach of the 
canoe disturbs their reverie. Little African woodpeckers 
are creeping up the branches, deftly turning round towards 
the imseen side when they observe you; large green 
mantises or " praying insects " are chasing small flies with 
their great pouncing forelegs, and every now and then a 

''' A^ophthdlmtis, | Pojonorliijucus o&ogo&le^x 



28 A JOURNEY UP THE BJVER CONQO. 

blue roller-bird snaps up a mantis in spite of its wonderful 
assimilation to its leafy surroundings. Farther into the 

forest, the canal, a blind alley of water, stops, the soil 
becomes solid and well raised, and a native path is dis- 
cernible, leading through the now more park-like and 
formal clumps of forest to a distant village, whence the 
crowing of cocks and the occasional shouts of the in- 
habitants can be heard. But the birds do not lessen 
because we are approach- 
ing the abode of men,* 
Out of the bosky trees 
little troops of black and 
white hombills suddenly 
?tart and flap their loose 
iiregular flight to another 
refuge Violet plantain- 
eaters gleam out in their 
beauty from time to time : 
golden cuckoos yellow- 
vented bulbuls • green 
fnut pigeons grey .par- 
rots panots thit are grey 
ind blue and yellow- 
•^h luldered green love- 
1 irds and i multitude of 
little waxbills a medley 
ot diverse and beautiful 
birds enlnen this walk 
through the forest along 
the bhck peat path with their loud cnes, thtir lovely 
plumage and their lipid movem(,nts In the native 
village which I thus reach buiied in the forest that over- 
awes a stranger with its majest> there are many indica- 
tions of the neighbounng fauna. These rivenne natives 
along the Lower Congo find it a- profitable employment to 
capture and tame every possible kind of mammal, bird, 
and reptile, which tliey then bring down to the English 

* Pijcuonoius. 




Pogonorhyneas tsogister 



THE LOWER COmO—^Al^ANA POIKT TO VtVL 29 

steamerS or the merchants at Banana to sell. Here, in 
this village near Kisange are young mandrils with their 
little leaden-blue faces gazing at you wistfully from the 
doorway of some native hut. In neatly-made wicker-work 
cages constructed from the light pithy wood of the baobab, 
many birds are awaiting the departure of their captors for 
Banana. Here is a green parrot,* green with a few red 
splashes on the wings, something like — perhaps somewhat 
allied to — the Amazon parrot of South America. Number- 
less little " cordons-bleus," waxbills, and weaver birds, arc 
twittering in their really pretty cages. A poor little 
Gcdago lemur sits, huddled and stupid, in his wicker prison, 
stunned by the bright daylight to which he is exposed. The 
sight of all these living things is too much for me ; and 
although I know how impossible it is to keep live creatures 
when you are travelling, I yield to the clamorous natives, 
and buy a cage of rare barbets (one of which is illustrated 
on p. 28), five in a charming little cage for a shilling, or at 
least for a shilling's worth of cloth at the neighbouring 
factory. 

Kisange is very nearly an island,t being encircled by two 
arms of the Congo which only dry up occasionally in the 
dry season; on the mainland, where the land is really 
firm, more game is present than on the islands and marshy 
banks of the river. Harnessed antelopes,J bush-bucks,§ 
Cohis and Cephalophus antelopes are found in certain 
quantities. Crocodiles are not so numerous here as 
towards Boma, where they become a positive pest. As an 
illustration of their boldness and rapacity, I will cite the 
following incident which has recently been reported to 
me from this part of the Congo. A Portuguese merchant 
was descending the river in his large native canoe. He 
was seated on a chair in the bow, and, as the canoe glided 
along, he noticed a large [crocodile keeping up with it, 
and swimming under water. He paid but little attention 
to the creature's movements, merely noting its constant 

* Fceocephalus rohustus. 

t Kisange in Kongo means ** island/' 

j Tragdaphus scriptus, " % T, gfatu^* 



30 A JOURNEY CF THE HI^ER COmO. 

pursuit -to the canoe-men, who laughed at its persistence. 
Suddenly, however, the crocodile sprang from the water 
and seizing the white man by the leg, nearly dragged him 
into the river. The Kabindas, who were paddling, inter- 
vened with great decision and presence of mind, and beat 
the crocodile about the head with their paddles so severely 
that he moderated his demands, and went off with a foot 
instead of the white man's whole body. The victim was 
taken to an English merchant of Ponta da Lenha, who is 
skilled in ' surgery, and who, I believe, saved the life of 
the crocodile's victim by skilful treatment. This should 
teach travellers on the Congo not to welcome the com- 
panionship of crocodiles, but fire at them in and out of 
season. Hippopotami are not so frequently seen on this 
lower part of the river, but become more numerous as we 
approach Boma. The carnivora here are represented by 
civets, lovely little genet cats and leopards, whose claws 
are used to decorate the caps of the chiefs on the Lower 
Congo. 

The next settlement of importance is Ponta da Lenha, 
where steamers call for supplies of wood-fuel (whence the 
name in Portuguese — " The Wood Point "). Ponta da 
Lenha, forty miles from the sea, and just out of the district 
of the mangrove swamps, offers little of interest or note 
save its fine orange trees, the only ones to be found on 
the lower river. This place is barely above the level of 
the stream, and the shore has to be protected with piles, 
as the Congo is eating Ponta da Lenha away. Only a 
little while ago, a French factory disappeared completely 
into the water, which now flows twenty feet above it. In 
the ordinary course of events this place would long ago 
have disappeared without the intervention of man ; for 
the Lower Congo seems to be widening its bed year by 
year, and even striking out new issues towards the Sea — 
at present all of them blind alleys ; but the Congo is so 
ambitious of having a delta, that I am sure he will 
ultimately attain what his older fellows in Africa, the 
Nile, the Niger, and the Zambezi already possess. 

Boma, once, and that not long since, the limit of 



9he loPteb coMo— banana point to VIVI. 5l 

European extension on the Congo, lies about eighty miles 
from the mouth of the river, and is the site of many 
" factories " and trading establishments belonging to the 
English, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Belgians. There 
is also a flourishing Catholic Mission here. The river at 
and below Boma somewhat resembles the Congo at 
Stanley Pool in its great breadth, its many islands, and 
the numberless water-birds that haunt its banks. The 
sinister influence of the barren stony hills and straitened 
stream that marks the Cataract region is over, and Nature 
expands in richness and luxuriance. No villages are 
found near the river until Vivi is reached. There is, it is 
true, a sort of native town near Kisange, but it is chiefly 
used for trading purposes, and is almost abandoned in the 
rainy season. Boma is, perhaps, the most unhealthy 
place on the Congo. The heat is excessive, and behind 
the European houses lie great swamps and fetid marshes, 
which not only give rise to much fever, but breed the 
most terrible mosquitoes for size and bloodthirstiness that 
I have ever known. Fortunately, both my visits there, 
coming and going, were of short duration, and I hastened 
to leave a place which, whether from fancy or otherwise, 
seemed to me eminently disagreeable.* 

Ascending the river towards Underhill, a settlement of 
the Baptist Mission on the south bank of the Congo about 
110 mdes from the sea, where I had been invited to pass 
a few days on my way to the interior, I noted the in- 
creasing asperity of the river scenery. The rounded 
grassy downs of Boma became abrupt and jagged hills 
with great red patches of bare earth, and little forest re- 
maining in their stony clefts. The graceful Hyphoene 
palms with their fan -like fronds gradually decreased in 
numbers until they finally and completely disappeared. 
Meantime the river narrowed, and wound tortuously with 
many whirlpools and sunken rocks amid the stem pre- 

* Now (1894) Boma has become the administrative capital of the 
Congo Free State, and draining and clearing have made it far 
healthier and more suited for the great capital it will sovxi^ ^^ 
become. — ^H. H. J. 



32 A JOVBNEY UP THE niVHb CO MO. 

cipitous hills, hills that were fast becoming mountains. I 
touched at Musuka, a point of departure for Sao Salvador, 
and Noki, a trading station on both sides of the river, and 
finally arrived at " Underhill," the site of a large Baptist 
Mission, a place known by the natives as Tundua. 
"Underhill" stands a few miles from Vivi on the opposite 
bank, and is situated amid really picturesque scenery. 
The great river takes a broad bend opposite the station, 
and is shut in on both sides by the towering hills, so that 
it resembles nothing so much as a beautiful mountain 
lake lying in a profound gorge, save that the whirling, 
racing current shows you on reflection, that there must 
be a great river harassed and exasperated by the many 
obstacles that incessantly beset its hurried course towards 
the sea. Caught in this great bend, the river tearing 
down from Vivi has to pass through a somewhat narrow 
passage, and then hurls the whole of its stream against an 
immense and imposing cliff that really seems a great 
mountain side shorn in half. It rises almost perpen- 
dicularly from the water, which so boils, and whirls, and 
seethes, and eddies at its base, that this loop of the river 
has been called by the Portuguese " Heirs- Cauldron." The 
intense red colour of the earth, where the cliff has been 
scarped and bared by the rains, and its lurid reflections in 
the streaks of smooth water ; the dark purple-green woods 
that nestle in the sombre hollows of the hills — hills that 
seem pitilessly to enclose the scene and forbid escape — 
the unquiet water and the ghoul-like vultures, always 
soaring in black and white relief against the dark-toned 
background; all these details render the grim name 
singularly applicable, though the scene to which it has 
been applied has a savage beauty about it that redeems 
the gloom. 

The little mission-house was building when I first went 
there, the principal element in its construction being, as 
in most of the temporary houses on the Lower Congo, 
what the Portuguese call "bordao," and the English 
''bamboo/' but which really is the strong shafts of the 
full-grown fronds of Phcenix spinosa, a species of dwarf 



THE LOWER CONGO —BANANA POINT TO VIVI. 33 

palm, growing abundantly on the river between Boma 
and the sea, in the marshy districts and flat mud-banks 
that border the widening river. The skeleton of the 
house is first formed by a scaffolding of stout poles cut 
from among the saplings of the neighbouring forest, and 
in between these the ''bamboo" rods are worked, and 
make an excellent and firm partition through the chinks 
of which the air can freely penetrate. Underbill is a 
pretty station, but so shut in by natural obstacles that it 
is difficult to explore much of the neighbourhood in the 
absence of any path over the stony hills, where the strong 
grass, growing often six feet high, does not conduce to a 
pleasant walk. 

I was preparing to make a little journey along the 
south bank of the river, hoping ultimately to reach Stanley 
Pool, when on the eve of my departure the Belgique, a 
steamer belonging to the African International Association, 
called at UnderhiU, and the captain gave me a message 
from the chief of Vivi station, inviting me to come over 
to see Mr. Stanley, who had just returned from Europe. 
I deferred my intended departure for a day, and accom- 
panied the captain of the Belgique on his way up stream 
to Vivi. Several times before, I had seen this vessel pass 
the mission and then disappear, as it were, into the very 
mountain side, for the entrance to ** Hell's Cauldron *' was 
strangely hidden, so that to the great wish 1 entertained 
of meeting Stanley in Africa, and discoursing with him 
there on African things was added a vague curiosity to 
see what was " round the corner " of this great gorge in 
the mountains. What I did see, on turning a bend in 
the straitened and harassed stream, here flowing between 
precipitous hills of a thousand feet, was Vivi, which, as it 
rose bright and glistening under the afternoon sun, its 
white houses crowning a great, gaunt cliff, and gleaming 
out in their brightness like some Eastern city on a fortress- 
hill, did, indeed, hardly look a peaceful settlement, but 
rather the stronghold of some river pupate and the store- 
house of his booty. The little steamer, fearful in those 
days of struggling to the foot of Vivi Hill, 7?\i'ei^ >3ck&\%a\» 



34 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO, 

strong rush of water was difficult to stem, put into a little 
creek — Belgique Creek as it is still called — and here we 
landed, and walked through moist woods and dank ravines 
to Vivi, the last part of the way being an arduous ascent 
along a red clayey road. As we neared the station, 
increasing numbers of people were seen, till, arriving in 
the centre of the great oblong space round which the 
houses stand, it was like assisting at some huge African 
fair. Two hundred and eighty Zanzibaris had arrived the 
day before, in addition to those that were already at the 
station, and then there were " Kruboys," " Kabindas," and 
many of the natives from the vicinity ; for, in addition to 
the already numerous arrivals, several important chiefs 
with their crowds of followers had come to hold a palaver 
of honour, a sort of afternoon call, on ** Bula Matadi," * to 
welcome him back to his work on the Congo. Here he 
was, seated on his camp-chair, his pipe in his mouth, and 
a semicircle of grinning kinglets squatting in front of him, 
some of them smoking long-stemmed, little-bowled pipes 
in complacent silence, and others putting many questions 
to " Bula Matadi " as to his recent journey to Europe — ^to 
" Mputo," the land beyond the sea, as they call it — and 
receiving his replies with expressions of incredulous 
wonder, tapping their open mouths with their hands. I 
paused involuntarily to look at this group, for Stanley had 
not yet seen me approaching, and was unconscious of 
observation. Perhaps he never posed better for his picture 
than ab that moment, as he sat benignly chatting and 
smoking with the native chiefs, his face lighting up with 
amusement at their naive remarks, while the bearing of 
his head still retained that somewhat proud carriage that 
inspired these African chieftains with- a real respect for 
his wishes, and a desire to retain his friendship. Any one 
observing Stanley at tliis moment could comprehend tlie 
great influence he possesses over the native mind on the 
Congo, and could realise how; that influence must tend 
toward peace wherever Stanley's fame has reached, for to 

♦ Stanley's Congo name, " The Rock Breaker." 



THE LOWER CONGO — BANANA POINT TO VIVI. 35 

attaok a friend of Stanley's seems to the natives scarcely 
less futile than attacking Stanley himself. Stanley turned 
suddenly as the chief of the station introduced me, and 
welcomed me in a thoroughly cordial manner; then 
dismissing the native chiefs, who had examined me 
curiously under the belief that I was " Bula Matadi's " son, 
he sent Dualla for some tea. Dualla was a handsome 
Somali lad, son of the chief of the police at Aden, and 
versed in many European and African languages. He 
had been Stanley's body-servant on the Congo since 1879. 
On the first night of my arrival we were a larger party 
— some twenty-seven white m6n in all — than the ordinary 
dining-room would comfortably contain, so, as the night 
was brilliantly fine and still, the long dinner-table was 
spread in the open moonlight near the edge of the jagged 
clifif, and here we sat long after the meal was over, calmly 
enjoying the balmy night, and listening to Stanley's always 
vivid descriptions of past African experiences, enhanced 
in this case by such a splendid mise en scene to his dis- 
course as Vivi, the dark mountains, the rushing river, and 
the quiet moonlight could lend. Vivi station* is about 
360 feet above the sea, and a clear 270 feet above the 
Congo. The projecting mass of hill upon which the 
station is placed rises higher as it nears the river, and is 
almost inapproachable save from the inland side, or by 
means of a road winding up from the river bank. On the 
left of this precipitous hill a little stream, dashing in tiny 
cascades through a series of small chasms in the blue-grey 
rock, gives rise to some vegetation, and, indeed, rather 
picturesque hanging woods, and fertilises the large gardens 
and banana plantations that have been made in the valley. 
This stream is very nearly perennial, but in the dry season 
it occasionally fails, otherwise it may be looked upon as 
the water supply ojf Vivi, for its water is more agreeable 
to drink than that of the Congo, which, though perfectly 
wholesome, is charged with sandy sediment and has often 

* Vivi is no longer in existence. It was found to be a very un- 
healthy place, and the river approach was very difi&cult. The «ft.t\.W' 
ment, therefore, was removed to the opposite bank. a^. "XiH^l^j^vw— ^.^.^ * 



36 A JOUBNEY UP THE BIVEB CONGO, 

a taste of weak tea. On the opposite side of Vivi Hill 
opens another valley, full of richly-hued green woods, 
rising and falling till they reach the distant rolling downs 
that rise above " Hell's Cauldron." Behind Vivi a huge 
mass of rock towers up into the sky, scantily covered with 
tufts of vegetation, and surmounted by great blocks of 
stone that look like the remains of a cairn or some 
Druidical temple. 

To describe one of Mr. Stanley's stations is no very 
satisfactory task,- for, by the time your description is 
printed and published, the place may be utterly trans- 
formed, and indeed, so quickly do things march now on 
the Congo that Vivi, the most stable of all the establish- 
ments, is probably no longer as I knew it.* However, in 
the beginning of 1883, the arrangement of the buildings 
was pretty much as follows. On the summit, and near 
the riverward edge of the cliff, was a flat and level 
platform, nearly artificial, and about eighty feet square. 
Here were placed several important houses. The prin- 
cipal one contained an upper story, with Mr. Stanley's 
bedroom, and on the ground-floor a large sitting-room, 
surrounded by amply filled book-shelves, the doctor's 
room and laboratory, the bed-room of the second in 
command, a " store," an ofi&ce or bureau, and a gun-room. 
This house was going to be removed and rebuilt — or 
rather, an entirely new building was to be put in its 
place, as it was hot and badly adapted for the climate ; 
the double walls did not seem to render it much cooler, 
and moreover, had become the home of a colony of 
abominable little bats, whose squeaking, both at dawn 
and sunset, was most fidgeting; perhaps, however, on 
account of the bats, mosquitoes were almost absent at 
Vivi, a great and appreciable relief to those who sufier 
from their venomous bites. The opposite building to 
" Stanley's House " was a large sort of one-storied barrack, 
containing a number of bedrooms for tlie white residents, 
and a large dining-room open on three sides to the air. 

* h no longer in ciifctcncc, aft 1 Lave already pointed out.— li. H. J. 



TEE LOWER CONGO — BANANA POINT TO VIVL 39 

There were also on this upper plateau, which might be 
called the fashionable part of Vivi, an observatory, a 
shower-bath, a pigeon-house, and the usual domestic 
offices. From the verandah that runs along the shady 
side of Stanley's house a most beautiful view of the Lower 
Congo, with its woody islands, its swirling rapids, and 
noble downs may be obtained. Here, also, are placed 
many comfortable seats and chairs, and in the warm 
afternoon hours it is pleasant to rest here, half dreamily, 
with a nice book from the well-furnished library, and let 
one's eyes wander from its pages to the sun-steeped 
landscape below the hill. From this raised square two 
broad lights of steps lead down to an oblong space of 
ground with a long garden in the centre, round which are 
placed houses for white men, kitchens, stores, piggeries, 
fowl-houses, and finally, apart from all the rest, a powder 
magazine. Beyond these, and generally below, for the 
" white " part of Vivi occupies the summit of the hill, all 
the settlements and little tidy cabins of the Zanzibaris, 
the Krumen, and the Kabindas are placed, each race 
forming, as it were, a little colony by itself. This " native 
town" is scrupulously clean, and some of the little 
compounds belonging to the headmen, or to those whose 
married condition entitles them to a more excluded way 
of living, are really very pretty and bright, with their 
tiny plantations, and flocks of chickens and Muscovy 
ducks. In any direction, if you want to leave Vivi, you 
must go down. The prettiest walk lies towards the 
little brook. Thence, at sunrise and towards sunset, the 
women wend their way with their pitchers balanced on 
the head, to bring water for their households. Lower 
down the stream, near where the road to Isangila crosses 
it, is the washing-place where, under the shelter of a few 
well-placed umbrageous trees, the women spend the noon- 
time over the linen. It is here that all the gossip is 
exchanged among the coloured ladies ; and it is here that, 
if your "boy" obtains a few minutes' leave, he comes to 
revel in the scandal of black society. 
Life at Vivi had a certain inono\ftic^> «xA Qti<^ ^«^ 



40 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

passed much like another, save that on Sundays no work 
was done, and an air of decorous dulness pervaded every- 
thing. When I stayed at Vivi it was generally to obtain 
a temporary rest, and therefore I led principally an 
indoor life and devoted myself to arranging the facts I 
had already collected in divers expeditions. My time 
passed much as follows. In the early morning, about six, 
my Zanzibari servant would come into my room with a 
tray of light breakfast — coffee, bread and butter, sardines, 
&c. I dallied over this meal with one of the hundred and 
fifty books of the station library, and then sauntered out 
in pyjamas to the shower-bath just outside the house, and 
after refreshing myself with a good douche, I dressed 
and took a walk to botanise or sketch. At noon we all 
met at breakfast — or lunch — which was laid on the long 
table in the nearly open-air dining-room I have already 
mentioned. This meal generally began with soup, and 
then there would follow roast meat and boiled, the flesh 
of sheep, goat, pig, or an occasional antelope; chicken, 
cooked in different ways, curry, and all the most dazzling 
show that tinned-meats could offer — not very brilliant or 
toothsome these latter it must be owned — and I myself 
always preferred plain roast goat, however tough, to the 
insipid contents of a tin, notwithstanding the attractive 
title it might bear in the menu. 

Lisbon wine and Bordeaux were always on the table, 
and occasionally beer. Breakfast wound up with coffee 
and biscuits, and the meal finished, every one separated 
to pass away the hot hours of the day either in siesta or 
reading beneath the cool verandah. This was the silent 
hour, when scarcely even a Zanzibari was seen stirring, 
and where the European perspired tranquilly in pyjamas. 
About four, afternoon tea was about, or afternoon coffee 
or chocolate, as you preferred it. It was generally made 
separately for you by your own " boy," and either drimk 
in one's own room, or enjoyed amid a group of gossipers 
in the conamon sitting-room. Then work began again in 
earnest. The pickaxes of the road-makers, the hammering 
from the carpenter's shop, the cries of the Kruboys 



TBB LOWER CONGO—BANANA POINT TO VTVT. 43 

unloading cai^o from a steamer, the jabbering of the 
natives come to traffic their products against the white 
man's cloth, beads, wire, and gin, all formed the busy 
turmoil that rose from the awaking station, and which 
continued till the sun was down, and the bell had sounded 
for cessation of work. Then the cooking fires of the 
Zanzibaris and the Kruboys twinkled in the dusky bush, 
and the dinner-table waa laid for the white men, with the 




pleasant glow of lamplight reflected on the white cloth 
and the knives and forks, like a glimpse of far-off 
civilization. Every one expanded at dinner-time. Tlie 
anxious chief foi^t hia anxieties ; those who thought 
they were going to die of fever seemed at any rate 
resolved to die with a full stomach ; the doctor rubbed 
his hands and looked kopeful; people who had be&o. 
'•'distant" witti one anoUier during ft^e i.«^ \ARsasiR» 



44 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

cordial ; and after the meal was over, and the cigars and 
wine were placed on the table, we would grow so interested 
in discussions as to the relative merits of the governments, 
the journals, and the theatres of our respective lands, that 
in our conversation we were completely transported back 
to Europe. So much so, that when we bade each other 
good-night, it gave quite a revulsion to our thoughts to 
leave the brightly-lighted dining-room, the laughing faces 
and the eager talk, and walk off to one's bedroom through 
the warm and scented African night, where the Southern 
Cross rose above that great rushing river, and where the 
deep silence was only broken at times by the cry of a 
night-bird or the yelp of a distant dog. 



( 45 ) 



CHAPTER III. 

PALABALA AND YELALA. 

Native Villages — Agriculture — Domestic Animals — Houses- - 
Scenery — The Livingstone Int^and Mission — Fiote the Lan- 
guage OF THE Congo — The neighbouring Kings — Native 
Superstitions — Native Feelings towards Christianity — King 
Kongo-Mpaka — Cucurbits — The Lufu — Keturn to Vivi— 
Journey to Yelala — Nguvi Mpanda and its amiable Chief — 
•J'he Scenery on the Road — The Grass — Grasshoppers — Kai — 
Dracosnas — ^The Chief of Yelala — Nt£t£ Mbongo's Toilette 
— Journey to the Falls — The Falls of Yelala — A Fisu 
Breakfast — ^Return to Vivl 

Leaving Vivi for a time, I returned to Underhill, to 
undertake the journey along the south bank of the river 
for which I had made previous preparations, with the 
intention, however, of returning to Mr. Stanley's station 
should I not succeed in my enterprise. I intended, at any 
rate, to visit the interesting native town of Palabala, 
which lay about six miles from the Congo, due south from 
Vivi. Having mustered my few carriers, most of them 
the riff-raff of Boma, I left Underbill in the sultry noon- 
time and toiled at first up a steep and stony hill, most 
exasperating in character, where my feet slipped back at 
every step off the sharp-edged stones. Then as the little 
groups of Mission buildings vanished behind, shut out by 
th6 brow of the hill, a fresh stretch of the river Congo, 
rolling swiftly along through narrowing banks, came into 
view, with Vivi rising high above its north bank, a crest 
of white houses surmounting a scarped red cliff. The 
road winding down from this eagle's nest to the riverside 
was very distinctly seen. The stream of tlift Ciovi'^^ \ssx^^ 



A JOURNEY UP THE HIVEB CONGO. 



according to Mr. Stanley's soundings, ia of immense 
depti nintty fathoms and in the rainy aeison flows at the 




Mussenda grandifior: 

r.iti; of nine miles an hour; 
l.KiL to luiy ulk; imt T^iiowiiiy 
this, it is liai-d to believe tiiat 

this river, 50O yards broad at most, is the same stream as 

the great Lualaba. 
As one descends the valley, the river finally disappears 



PALABALA AND YELALA. 



47 



from view. It is flowing from the north, and Falabala lies 
nearly due east. The path thither leads you through two 
or three native vill^ea of a comfortable and prosperous 
appearance, and suggesting here and there by certain 
cnnoing shifts and contrivances that their inhabitants are 
not bereft of savoir vivre. There are well-cultured plots 




of maize and manioc, here nnd tliere a lime, and even an 
orange tree (these latter i-are), papaw ti-eea, and tlie 
beautiful passion-flower, which yivea the fruit known as 
maracuja or gtenadilla, is carefully trained over a frame- 
work of sticks. Little beds of earth are being assiduously 
hoed, and are marked out with geometrical attc.\wii"j V^ 



48 A JOURNEY UP TEE EIVEB CONGO. 

means of the same device as our gardeners employ at 
home, a tight string tied from peg to peg, only that in 
this case a sort of baat or iibre is used instead of string. 
There are clucking fowls with small chicks about them, 
carefully housed in large hencoops made of withes and 
grass to protect the chickens from their many enemies ; 
and for the hens to lay in, and the fowls to roost in at 
night, neat little hen-houses are raised on posts, out of the 
reach of snakes. 




OONUO HOUSE. 



In a rough sort of shanty, constructed principally of 
overlaid palm-fronds, are the goats and the sheep (the 
sheep are of the usual Central African stock, with short 
hairy coats, supplemented in the ram by a splendid silky 
mane from his chin to his stomach) ; and even, rarely, we 
may see a black high -shouldered bullock stalled in a not 
ill-fashioned manger made of the same material. 

The houses are well and neatly built, generally raised a 
foot above the ground on a platform of beaten earth. 
There is first of all a framework of stout poles, one 
very long pole forming the apex of the slanting and 
wide-apr«iding roof, and on this is fixed a covering of 
thin laths and dried grass. The roof extends some 
feet beyond the body of the house, and in front is 



PALABALA AND TELALA. 49 

prolonged to a sort of verandah, further supported by two 
extra poles, and susceptible of any modification, from 
being the shady space of a few feet where the inmates of 
the house pass most of their time, to becoming the great 
reception-place and palaver-ground of kings. Here, as we 
pass, the inhabitants of each house are nearly always 
assembled. The women look up from pounding palm- 
kernels and show all their teeth in a grin at the " mun- 
dele " (white man) ; the men, squatted in lazy ease, take 
their large-bowled pipes from their mouths and call out a 
salutation, generally " Mavimpi," whilst, irresolute be- 
tween the threshold and the interior, large-headed, round- 
eyed children mutely and distrustfully regard the white 
man, who must in their eyes as much embody some notion 
of uncanny bogeyism as the traditional black man does 
to English children. 

Around each village there is a grove of bananas, or 
plantains, a perpetual source of food supply to their 
cultivators. Two sorts of fruit are principally eaten here ; 
the plantain, which has no sweet taste, but is excellent 
roasted and eaten with butter, and the richly sweet 
banana. 

The style of scenery on the road to Palabala is typical 
of the cataract region of the Congo, a succession of stony 
hills, covered with rough grass, and rich, fertile valleys 
with luxuriant forests and running streams in their depths. 
About midway to Palabala, you have to cross by means of 
a native ferry the river Mposo,* a rapid stream that rises 
near Sao Salvador, and flows into the Congo exactly 
opposite Vivi. Beyond this the road is all up hill and 
down dale, till at length we descry a fringe of forest which 
marks the site of Palabala, on the crest of a great hill, 
1600 feet high. As I pass through the native village, the 
people cry out " Mundele, mundele," and several come 
forward and salute me with " 'Morning," a contraction of 
" Good-morning," which they have learnt from the 

* Mposo means buffalo. Many African rivers are named after 
animals. 



60 



A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 



miasioDaries. The miaaionary of the LiviDgatone Inland 
Mission, who was resident at Falabala, gave me a kind 
reception, and a welcome meal was soon prepared for 
me by his orders. There were delicious fried bananas, 
pounded pea-nut sauce with toast chicken, " palm-oil 
chop," and many other native dishes, supplemented with 
a few European accessories. After dinner I attended 
prayers with the missionary in the school-house, where 




HOUTH OP MPOBO BITEIl. 



an English lady, one of the members of the mission, 
was residing. Here some twenty people were assembled, 
principally boys. There waa a little girling at our 
approach, otherwise they were well-behaved. The 
missionary prayed in Piote (the language of the Lower 
Congo) and in English, and also read a chapter of the 
Bible in the same tongues. The subject in Fiote was not 
wisely chosen, being a wearisome record of Jewish wars, 



PALABALA AND TELALA. 51 

where familiar-sounding Bible names were strangely 
mixed up with imintelligible Fiote. All the while the 
black congregation (swelled this evening by my five 
porters) sat stolidly immoved, although tJie missionary 
strove to infuse as much interest as possible into his 
discourse. After this followed a Moody and Sankey hymn 
in Fiote, in which I felt anything but at home, and could 
only make semblance with my lips to be following. 
Finally, a short prayer finished up the whole, and then 
began a ceremony which the natives would not miss for 
the world. Each one came separately and shook hands 
with the. lady, the missionary and myseK, accompanying 
the shake-hands with a " goo'-night, Sir," applied 
indifferently to either sex. We also retired to our rooms, 
and although mine was rather damp (there was a fine 
crop of mushrooms — alas 1 not edible, and waving grass 
growing on my bedroom floor), I had a comfortable bed 
and slept well. 

It was very humid and wet at Palabala. Every morn- 
ing and evening a thick mist surrounded everything and 
rendered the place clammy and unhealthy. There are 
four kings or chieftains in this neighbourhood, Kongo- 
Mpaka, Nikiangila, Tantia, and a small boy, whose name 
I forget. Kongo-Mpaka is the head king, and only owes 
allegiance to the king of Congo at Sao Salvador. A little 
while ago one of the queens of this king of Congo made a 
sort of progress through his dominions, and w£is received 
with great respect at Palabala. The local dialect here is 
a very pure form of the Fiote (Fiote really means the 
" people," the " mass " ) or " Congo " tongue, which has 
been studied by Europeans ever since the days of 
Brusciotto (1659), Proyart (1776), and Canecattim (1806). 
The Portuguese has largely influenced tliis tongue, as may 
be seen by the vocabulary ; and perhaps at Palabala there 
are even more terms of that language in common use than 
farther north; nor is this to be wondered at, when we 
consider that Portugal has for four centuries exercised a 
dominating influence, religious and political, over these 
lands. 



52 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

At Palabala the natives were, at the time of my visit, 
disposed to be impudent and even aggressive towards white 
men, but during the last few months of my stay on the 
Congo, they modified their tone, owing to their commercial 
relations with Mr. Stanley's expedition. 

They are very superstitious, and for every person that 
dies somebody is made " ndoki " (or " devil possessed "), 
and has to take the casca poison.* This is usually 
administered in such a way as to be merely a strong 
emetic, under the idea that the victim may " bring up " 
the devil, and cast him out with his bile. They think a 
great deal of their " Nkimha'' and on the south bank of 
the river, where Mr. Stanley's influence is not as yet so 
firmly established as in the neighbourhood of Vivi, it is 
dangerous for a white man to offend these fanatics, who 
will severely beat him (as they did a young member of 
the Livingstone Mission) with their long wands or staves 
in return for fancied slights. The Nkimba are in all 
probability males undergoing circumcision, and initiation 
into the rites of marriage. They may be of any age, boys 
of eleven or men of forty; but generally the "Nkimba- 
ship " is undergone by young men. A fuller description 
of their ceremonies and observances will be found in 
Chapter XVI. 

The people of Palabala may be said to "patronise" 
Christianity, a religion which, in my opinion, they are in 
their present mental condition totally unfitted to under- 
stand. When the missionary holds a Sunday service in 
King Kongo-Mpaka's house, some twenty or thirty idlers 
look in, in a genial way, to see what is going on, much as 
we might be present at any of their ceremonies. They 
behave very well, and imitate, with that exact mimicry 
which only the negro possesses, all our gestures and 
actions, so that a hasty observer would conclude they 

* This "Casca" poison is prepared from the thick, hard bark of a 
large tree, Erythrophlcettm Guineense, from 40 to 100 feet in height, 
belonging to the tribe DimorphandresB, sub-order CaBsalpinias^ Nat. 
Ord. LeguminossB, See Monteiro, 'Angola and River Congo,* vol. i. 
pp, 61-65; and Oliver, * Flora of Tropical Africa,' vol. ii. pp. 320-321. 



PALABALA AND YELALA. 53 

were really touched by the service. They kneel down 
with an abandon of devotion, clasp their hands, and say 
" Amen " with a deep ventral enthusiasm. The missionary, 
on the occasion that I accompanied him, gave a short 
sermon in Fiote, well expressed considering the little time 
he had been studying the language. The king constantly 
took up the end of some phrase, and repeated it with 
patronising interest after the missionary, just to show how 
he was attending, throwing meanwhile a furtive glance 
at his wives, who were not pursuing their avocations out- 
side with sufficient diligence. A short prayer concluded 
the service, and when the king rose from his knees, he 
promptly demanded the loan of a hand-screw to effect 
some alteration in his new canoe. 

Bound Palabala the vegetation is very rich. There is 
beautiful forest in the valleys wherein pine-apples grow 
wild, and the bracken fern gives a familiar air to the 
undergrowth in the woodland glades. The CumrUtacece 
are very noticeable here, particularly one species that has 
most gorgeous fruits ; they are egg-shaped, about the size 
of a pear, and covered with prickles. The outside is the 
most brilliant orange colour; when ripe, the husk splits 
into four sections, displaying the interior where the black 
seeds are lying enveloped in pulp of the richest crimson 
hue I have ever seen in nature. The commonest birds 
round Palabala are the grey parrot, the Gypohierax 
vulture, and a small black hornbill. 

In my journeys beyond this place I reached to the river 
Lufu, but the extortions of the local chief, the difficulty 
of procuring food, and the untrustworthiness of my 
carriers, who were secretly in league with the natives, 
rendered any further progress along this inhospitable 
route inadvisable, especially as Mr. Stanley's road to the 
north of the river was open to me, where I should be 
perfectly free from the exactions of the native chiefs, and 
have merely the usual physical difficulties of ordinary 
African travelling to contend with. In fact, in the end 
of 1882, this road along the southern side of the Congo 
ofifered many obstructions which have ame,^ \i^^\ix^xKxs5^^^ 



64 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

The negro can only be ruled by gentle firmness, and the 
long-sufifering missionaries are the worst people possible 
to deal with him. A " rule of love *' he takes for a con- 
fession of weakness, and abuses it accordingly. When 
I had once entered Palabala, where the Livingstone 
missionaries have been patiently working for three years, 
I could not leave it, either to go backwards or forwards, 
until I had paid the rascally old king, Kongo-Mpaka, in 
the missionary's presence, a present of gin to the value 
of 25s. The missionary felt humiliated at having to 
interpret the king's demand, but it was a case oi force 
majeure, and my kind host was powerless in the matter, 
having been so often exposed to forced contributions 
himself. However, this is all altered now.* Mr. Stanley's 
agents have recently made treaties with the chiefs at 
Palabala and in the neighbourhood, and as a result of 
their efforts the southern road now no longer offers the 
slightest difficulty to even a solitary traveller. I returned 
to Vivi on the first day of the New Year, 1883, and was in 
time to participate in a very enjoyable dinner which 
celebrated the Jour de I'An. The succeeding week was 
occupied in making various excursions and in preparing 
for my great journey up the river, which was to take place 
with the help, and under the auspices of Mr. Stanley's 
expedition. Amongst the various shorter trips, however, 
which I made at different times to places in the 
neighbourhood of Vivi, was a visit to the celebrated 
Falls of Yelala, the greatest and first-known rapids of 
the Congo, which I will here describe because of their 
natural sequence to the country already treated of, 
although I did not actually see them until my return 
from the upper river. 

The Falls of Yelala are only some nine miles from Vivi 
as the crow flies, but by the winding road it is a distance 
of thirteen or fourteen. I started amid the morning mists 
that marked the commencement of the dry season. The 

* Still more so in 1892, when the people are semi-civilized, quiet 
a&d contented under Congo Free State rule. — ^H. H. J. 



PALABALA AND TELALA. 



55 



overarching grass, rank and high with the previous rainy- 
season's growth, was most fatiguing and difficult to pass 
through, and before I halted at the pleasant little village 
of Nguvi Mpanda, I was cut and scratched and slashed 
to such an exasperating degree that I was quite out of 
temper, the more so as myriads of little barbed seeds had 
crept down the back of my neck, and were pricking me 
at every motion of my body. At Nguvi Mpanda a few 




CBIBF OF HOCVI UPAHDA. 



minutes of welcome rest in the verandah of the chiefs 
house, and long copious drinks of creamy, frothing " palm- 
wine " just diuwn from the tree,* restored me to equani- 
mity, and I was enabled to reciprocate the profession of 
brotherhood on the part of the amiable chief with like 
effusion. He had not yet wearied of a whistle I had given 
him on a previous visit, and used it with unnecessary 
frequency to enforce his commands. I ought to remark, 

I, but the Bap of other 



56 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO, 

en passant, that thej palm-wine was served in a silver-gilt 
jug, and drank out of a silver-gilt goblet. This will give 
you an idea of how civilization is acting upon Nguvi 
Mpanda. 

The path leading to Yelala branched off from the 
Isangila road a short distance beyond this vUlage. For 
some half mile we wandered through plantations of sweet 
potatoes and ground-nuts, and then emerging from the 
thick vegetation, stood on the brow of a great hill, from 
which an astonishing sweep of view was commanded. 
We looked right across a wide expanse of rolling grassy 
down and winding valleys, at a colossal mass of rising- 
ground, surmounted by a fringe of dark trees, where lay 
the distant village of Yelala. To the right bold ranges of 
hills on the other bank of the invisible Congo, and to the 
left more hills from whence the little river Loa takes its rise. 
The humpy valley at my feet seemed a long basin of dish- 
like shape, shut in by these many mountains. I call it a 
" humpy " valley, because it was very unequal in surface. 
Little hummocks or hillocks broke up its uniformity, and 
it was dotted and strewn with blocks of white quartz, which 
seemed as if they had been recently washed out of the 
crumbling hillside by the heavy rains. A grand view for 
space and aerial effect it was, and one moreover singularly 
characteristic of this part of the Congo ; but withal ugly, 
inhospitable, and tame. All alike, hills and valleys were 
clothed with waving yellow-green grass, the monotony 
only broken by the intrusive blocks of quartz. Save in 
one or two sheltered valleys, where a few pitiful oil-palms 
clustered, not a tree was to be seen ; and the little gnarled 
bushes here and there to be found were almost covered 
with the tall, feathery grass that was emphatically the 
king of the country. The only signs of animal life were 
very large grasshoppers, with green bodies and scarlet 
wings, that whirred across the path in a blaze of scarlet, 
and then settled down on some grass stalk and relapsed 
into a monotony of green. The country was not lacking 
in water, fortunately, and our immoderate thirst, after 
scrambling down the rocky hillside, was amply quenched 



PALABALA AND TELALA. 



57 



in the cool limpid water that Sowed through every valley 
and ravine. 

It was with great relief that we left this country of 
grass and rocks behind 
lis, and entered the 
village of Kai, which 
was embosomed in ricli 
v^etation. Here we 
paused to drink more 
palm -wine, for the 
thirst engendered by 
the terrible scramble 
over loose stones and 
through the rasping 
grass was overpower- 
ing, and fortunate we 
were to be able to 
quench it with freshly- 
drawu " malafu " (the 
sap of the palm tree), 
which, to my thinking, 
is nowhere so delicious 
as in the environs of 
Vivi. Good palm-wine 
resembles strong sweet 
cider, and is quite as 
heady. 

Kai is little more 
than a suburb of Yelala 
village, and the short 
distance between the 

two is fiUed up with _p,,^„ S<,pochinou>ki. 

plantations and banana 

groves. The rich and rank vegetation that surrounds 
the neatly-built houses is moat amazing, compared with 
tlie barrenness outside. I saw some remarkably fine 
clumps of euphorbias • as I entered the village of 

* Euphorbia Aerm«ii(iuna. 




58 A JOUBNEY UP THE BIVER GONGO. 

Yelala, and further on, some handsome DracosTias* or 
dragon trees, in full blossom, with graceful sprays of 
small cream-coloured flowers depending from among the 
spikey leaves, the general aspect of the plant recalling 
the Yuccas, to which it is distantly allied. It is the 
first and only time that I remember to have seen this 
Draccena on the Congo, and it seems curious to find it 
preserved thus in a village. Indeed, it is an interesting 
fact that so many plants should be found growing in the 
villages in this part of Africa, which are never to be seen 
in the open. The euphorbias, for instance, I have never 
seen in a wild state, so to speak, but they exist in all the 
villages on or near the Congo from Yelala to Bolobo. 
Their native name in Congo is " Ndiza," but although they 
are known and named, I never could ascertain that any 
superstitious value or importance was attached to them 
which would serve to explain their constant presence in 
native towns ; perhaps the real solution of this fact, as also 
of the presence of large trees and luxuriant vegetation 
round the villages, is that all the uninhabited country is 
periodically set on fire by the natives, and that only in 
those places which the bush-fires do not reach can rich 
vegetation and forest trees exist. It is evident — and, 
indeed, the fact has struck Stanley, Schweinfurth, and 
most observant African travellers — that the grass fires 
must largely affect the " phytography " of Africa. 

The chief of Yelala I discovered by chance in the act of 
performing a very hasty toilet in my honour. He was 
wrapping a piece of velvet round his loins, in exchange for 
the dirty cloth that was his every-day dress. He added 
to this a long livery-coat, which must have been splendid 
in the days when it retained all its buttons, and then, 
issuing from his palisaded hut, he greeted me most politely. 
His name, he told me, was Ntet6 Mbongo, and he was 
chief of Yelala, of Kai, and of three other villages with 
very long names that I forget. A long, conical shaped 
head, like an Aztec ; a pair of very fine expressive eyes, 

* Dracoena Sapochiiwwki, 



FALABALA AND YELALA. 59 

surmounted by strongly-marked eyebrows, a well-shaped 
nose, and thin lips, made up an original and certainly 
distinguished physiognomy ; and though there were at 
times passing glimpses of expression that suggested cruelty 
and greed, they were dispersed by an unusually pleasant 
smile for an African chief. After the usual exchange of 
" Mbote, mbote " (the common salutation of the Congo), 
and the inspection of my tent and my bed, the chief called 
to his little son, who came running up with a splendid 
fish laid upon a banana leaf. It was freshly caught, and the 
bloom of life still hovered about its pinky scales. This, 
and a basket of eggs, was the chiefs present ; and, as I 
was very hungry, and had not tasted fish for many weeks, 
the gift was welcome. The fish, indeed, was delicious, 
tasting and looking much like salmon, and there was so 
much flesh on it that I had, first, fish-soup, then boiled-fish 
with egg-sauce, and then fish cutlets fried in butter, and 
then, after I had thoroughly dined off him, there still 
remained sufficient to satisfy the Zanzibaris. The next 
morning, at an early hour, we started under the guidance 
of the old chief to view the great Falls of Yelala — to view 
them, not as my predecessors had mostly done, from the 
summit of a high and distant hill, but to contemplate this 
wonderful rush of water from so near a point that the 
spray fell in fine showers over the waterproof I had 
fortunately donned. The journey thither was very 
fatiguing. At first the road led through plantations and 
pleasant forest glades, but soon quitted this . grateful 
verdure and umbrageous foliage, and took us over a steep 
and stony lull, where the rocks were disposed in ascents 
which were almost stair-like, more resembling, however, 
the sides of the pyramids, for each step was fitted for a 
giant's leg to mount, being often three jfeet high, Faraji, 
one of my Zanzibaris, hoisted me laboriously up each 
successive block, while the agile old chief, having wisely 
divested himself of his blue velvet, skipped up the steep 
ascent like any goat. At length we reached the highest 
point, and then — ^imagine my disappointment — ^instead of 
looking sheer down on the river, as I had korg^^^^TSL^^^st 



60 A JOUBNEY UP THE BIVEIt CONGO. 

valley of waving grass, and yet another hillside, lay before 
us. The descent was little less fatiguing than the climb 
had been, for the legs grew weary and palsied with con- 
tinual jumps of three feet from block to block. Then the 
grass of the succeeding valley tore and scratched us, and 
as I mounted the next, and what seemed the last, ascent, 
I was convinced that the Falls of Yelala could never 
reward me for such exertions. 

However, we eventually ceased to ascend, and as the 
path began to round the summit of the hill, we looked 
down on an imposing scene, whilst the sudden turn in the 
path brought to our ears a deafening roar of falling water. 

It was a grand view, and the very position from which 
we gazed on this scene was enough to render it more than 
usually striking. The path hung just on the edge of a 
conical hill, and here, where we paused, a great slab of 
basalt jutted out over a terrible precipice. From this pro- 
jection we looked down some hundred feet on the giant 
Congo, leaping over tlie rocks and dashing itself wrath- 
fully against the imprisoning hills. Several islands 
bestrewed its stream, one especially remarkable from 
being a mass of velvet woods. This was called the 
'* Island of Pelicans," for numbers of these great birds used 
this inaccessible spot as a breeding-place. 

Before the first fall took place the river came gliding on 
so smoothly, with such a glassy surface, as if never sus- 
pecting the terrible conflict before it, and when at first it 
met the rocks and the descent it streamed over them 
almost unresistingly until, exasperated by repeated checks, 
in the last grand Fall of Yelala, it lashed itself into white 
and roaring fury, and the sound of its anger deafened one's 
ears, and the sight of its foam dazzled the eyes. I had 
wished to pause long on this rock, and even make it the 
limit of my journey, but the old chief, who was enter- 
prising enough to personally conduct a party of Cook's 
tourists (and who knows that he may not yet do so ?), 
insisted on my completing the descent, and viewing the 
falls from their banks. I really doubted whether I could 
ever manage to do so without at any rate seriously 



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FALABALA AND YELALA. 63 

damaging myself in the perilous enterprise, or even 
tumbling headlong into the river ; but somehow, by means 
of a rope and a stout rod, I managed at last to reach a 
ledge of rock, where the spray of the great waves fell, and 
thence I made my way to a series of little caverns in the 
wall of stone, whence T could ^aew the Falls of Yelala at 
my ease. 

In all probability the Congo never descends here more 
than twelve feet at a time, but the constant succession of 
falls and the obstructing rocks lash the water into a state 
of indescribable fury. It is a splendid race of waves. 
Some seem to outstrip the others, and every now and then 
the water rebounding from the descent meets the oncoming 
mass, and their contact sends a shoot of foam and clouds 
of spray into the air. The rocks near the water's edge 
are covered with a long, filamentous water-weed of intense 
verdure, and looking like masses of long, green hair. White 
plumbago and many bright flowers are growing in the 
interstices of the grey rocks, over which large blue and 
red lizards chase the flies that are half-stupidly basking in 
the sunlight. There is a great overhanging mass of rock 
which the shade never quite deserts, and where the native 
fishermen are frying the just-caught fish for their mid-day 
meal. The wicker-work fishing baskets and traps are 
lying about, emptied of their contents, of which such as 
are not being smoked or grilled are tied together in threes 
and fours, and put in the shade till their captors are ready 
to depart. Sometimes one finny monster, as big as a 
salmon, is lying apart by himself, still gasping with his 
poor expanding and contracting gills, as he lies in a death 
agony in the dry, hot air. Soon his red gills and his 
entrails will be torn out and thrown where other heaps 
of fish refuge are already lying — centres of attraction 
to the buzzing flies and the fly-hunting lizards, and 
an all-absorbing theme of contemplation to the hungry 
black and white vultures that perch irresolutely on the 
neighbouring rocks. 

The chief, and most of the men who accompanied us, 
had stripped, and were bathing with much merrimeixti aicki 



64 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO, 

satisfaction in the little weirs and back-waters of the 
river. After his bath the prince of Yelala went and sat 
on a cool ledge of rock under the overhanging grotto. 
Here he invited me to come and partake of an impromptu 
meal of grilled fish. This I was in nowise loth to do ; so 
we got out some salt, and some young ears of green Indian 
corn, which the thoughtful Zanzibaris had brought with 
them, and ate a most appetising breakfast of roasted maize 
and grilled fish — fish that a few minutes before had been 
gasping in the wicker-traps, and that were now served to 
us with their tails in their mouths, precisely as whiting 
are at liome. 

When my sketches of the Falls were finished, I wished 
to return, and, in spite of the noonday sun, began to 
clamber up the rocks, and regain the mountain path 
leading to the village. The old chief, wiser than I, tried 
hard to persuade me to rest by the cool river-side until 
evening ; but, somehow, a strange fit of obstinacy possessed 
me, and I ran a very near risk of getting sunstroke as a 
reward. The fierce heat radiating from the rocks — which, 
indeed, were too hot to be touched without hurting the 
hand — and the exhausting toil up this succession of stone 
blocks were too much for me, and, by the time I reached 
the outskirts of the groves bordering the village, I threw 
myself down in the grateful shade utterly sick and faint. 
I only mention this unimportant fact to show you that 
some Africans are really susceptible of thoughtful kind- 
ness ; for, in this case, the old chief, seeing me exhausted 
and ill, became most concerned, and sent off one boy to 
the village to bring me some of his precious rum, and 
another to the nearest brook for a calabash of cold water. 
Whilst these messengers were absent, he cut a large 
banana leaf, and fanned me with it gently, looking all the 
time most sympathizing. I revived long before the rum 
came, though unfortunately the old chief insisted on my 
taking a drain of this nauseous compound. On my return 
to the village, he supported me carefully with one arm ; 
and altogether, though my slight indisposition was un- 
worthy aU this attention on his part, the Chief of Yelala 



FALABALA AND YELALA. Go 

impressed me as a kind-hearted old man. I have met 
with so many incidents of genuine feeling and sympathy 
from the natives everywhere on the Congo, that I am sure 
they are people of finer natures than the degraded negroid 
coast tribes. That night, soon rested from my exertions at 
Yelala, I set off and walked back to Vivi, ten or eleven miles 
away ; but this journey occasioned me no fatigue, for the 
sun was down, and the glorious full moon had uprisen in 
the soft grey air, shining upon hUls, and rocks, and palms 
and native villages ; while a feeling of absolute peace 
prevailed over all, and no noise was heard but the cry of 
the goat-suckers and the stealthy rustling of our footsteps 
in the herbage. 



( 66 ) 



CHAPTEE IV. 

VIVI TO ISANGILA. 

My Zanzibaris — The Grass — Nguvi Mpakda — Behaviour of 
THE Children — The Valley of the Loa — Pleasures of 
Bathikg — The Camoensia — Sadika Banza — A Pet Fowl— 
The African Flora — The Buzi — The Bundi— Rain — Awk- 
ward Travelling — The Lulu — After the Storm — Hornbills 
AND Tree-Ducks— The Ngoma Falls — Stanley's Name of 
Bula Matadi — The Future of Ngoma — Isangila, 

On January 7tli, 1883, I left Vivi for Isangila, and 
Stanley Pool. Mr. Stanley was very ill with fever the 
day I started ; but although he was burning and shivering 
alternately, he would not let me go forward without 
ascertaining that everything which could aid me in my 
journey had been placed at my disposal; perhaps the 
most valuable help he rendered me was to attach to my 
person, as escort, three of his favourite Zanzibaris, Faraji, 
Mafta yu Hali, and Imbono — and it will be long before I 
forget them, or cease to regret the almost affectionate 
service they bestowed on me. 

Before I start once more in imagination on my long 
journey up the Congo, these three faithful servitors deserve 
a few words of individual description. 

Mafta, you would at once call a thoroughly respectable 
person, and I was so soon impressed by his superior 
appearance that I made him head man of the caravan. 
He was perhaps approaching middle-age, and his well- 
made figure of moderate height was neatly dressed in 
white cloth. Though his face was nearly black, the 
features were well formed and very Arab-like. His eyes 
were q^uietly humorous, and though he yapely laughed, 



VIVl TO ISINOILA. 




68 A JOUBNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

yet he could express much sedate merriment when his 
eyes twinkled and his white teeth gleamed in concert. 
The next one was Faraji, a young man in all the pleni- 
tude of physical development, a good-natured giant, with 
a power in his muscular form that his lazy intellect hardly 
wotted of. Then came one of those worthy characters, 
Imbono, who illustrated the proverb, "handsome is as 
handsome does," for his uncouthness was forgotten when 
you found what an untiring and never-grumbling worker 
he was. Mafta was a very religious Mahomedan, who 
never touched any fermented liquor and looked pained 
when his laxer companions did so. Both Faraji and 
Imbono, although nominally Moslem in faith, became sad 
backsliders on the Congo. They drank fermented palm- 
wine when they could get it, and became very forgetful 
of the hours of prayer. Laziness was Faraji's besetting 
sin, and he was a great framer of plausible excuses. 
Imbono had no fault as a servant, save that he was ugly. 

Having assembled my sixteen porters, and sent them on 
in advance to the first camping-place, I bade my last 
good-byes, and turning my back on white houses and 
white faces, rapidly descended the red hill, crossed the 
little brook, mounted another hill, passed quickly through 
a native village, where the dogs and the people rushed 
out to salute us, and then, gasping with heat and exaspe- 
rated by the stony ascent, I arrived on the top of a small 
mountain and paused inevitably to regain my breath. 
Thence we trudged along through high grass that very 
much circumscribed the view. It is terribly annoying 
that all-obscuring grass ; one of the first and foremost of 
Africa's petty disagreeables. Some of this monstrous 
herbage scattered on us barbed seeds that were armed at 
one end by a sharp needle-point and surrounded with 
short reversed hairs, so that, once the seed entered the 
clothing it could only work inward and not backward. 
Soon our bodies were pricked and scratched and irritated 
by the sharp-pointed awns that had penetrated through 
the innermost clothing to the skin. 

l^gvLYi Mpanda, the next village on the road, is sur- 



Vivr TO ISAmiLA. 69 

rounded, as are most Congo hamlets, by splendid forest 
trees and well-kept plantations. Before we entered it the 
path wound thi'ough many fields of manioc (which gives 
the edible root so largely consumed in these regions), and 
in these fields women, who are cleaning the weeds away 
with strongly made native hoes, look up and scream to 
one another, *'Mundele, mundele," and disperse with 
shrieks of frightened laughter. The little wondering 
children forget to follow their mothers in their astonish- 
ment, and stand gazing at me, open-mouthed with awe, 
as I pass, but when I stop to pat, with kindly meant 
gesture, their little dolichocephalic shaven pates, their 
terror finds tongue, and they burst into prodigious roars 
of agonised fright, rushing with little pattering feet over 
the newly-tilled beds, never daring to look behind at the 
white bogey, nor to stop till they are in their mothers' 
protecting arms, where they are received with laughing 
sympathy. The chief of Nguvi Mpanda stops us as we 
pass his verandah, under which he sits smoking with the 
village notables, and proffers palm-wine with hospitable 
insistance ; which I do not like to decline, so I hastily 
quaff the freshly drawn " malafu " from a narrow-necked 
gourd and then tramp on again behind the men through 
more plantations of manioc, ground-nuts, and Indian corn, 
till we arrive at another village, with another hospitable 
chief, this time wearing a very bushy .beard and moustache. 
However, if we are to reach the river Loa that night, 
where the first camp is fixed, there is no time to dally on 
the road, so we hurry on, waving aside, with deprecating 
thanks, all offers of palm- wine which, as a beverage, palls 
with constant repetition. Then the winding path — wind- 
ing for no apparent reason but the innate tendency of 
men to walk in curves — becomes disagreeably rocky, all 
sharp stones and sudden descents ; then a little bit of 
marsh intervenes, and so we are in the valley of the Loa, 
or in the valleys, rather, for canons and ravines intersect 
the hills in all directions. 

It is not a beautiful country hereabouts. It looks 
seared and yellow on the hillsides, and spotted with un- 



70 A JOURNEY UP THE RlVEIt CONCfO. 

pleasant, scrubby little bushes, giving no shade, and 
bearing unsightly, uneatable fruits. Along the little 
stream, where I go to take a bath, through the tall rank 
grass that borders the channel, buffaloes have passed and 
browsed some few hours before, and left some traces of 
their pasturing, the whole place being redolent of a farm- 
yard smell. I undressed, and placed my clothes on the 
stones. Oh! the woes of inexperience. All along the 
road I had seen my men slapping themselves with leafy 
branches to keep off the flies, but I, being clothed, felt no 
inconvenience, and therefore drew no inference from their 
actions. Now that I am naked myself, myriads of small 
black flies settle on me, and mise little points of blood 
wherever their needle-like probosces pierce the skin. My 
bath is but a short one, and is, while it lasts, total im- 
mersion, after which I hurriedly drag on my clothes, to 
screen my smarting, itching skin. Black blood-sucking 
flies, little creatures, smaller almost than a midge, are a 
prominent annoyance in some parts of the " cataract " 
region. They are not so noticeable either on the lower 
river below the falls nor in the open forest country above 
Stanley Pool. The first night, after an eight-mile walk 
from Vivi, we camped above the little river Loa, in a 
country that was somewhat harsh and stony, although in 
the deep ravines there was thick forest. Here were 
growing in abundance large, compact bushes of Camoensia, 
a plant with a beautiful pendulous blossom of creamy- 
white, with a golden centre, and the very delicate, un- 
equally-shaped petals lined with a narrow bordering of 
dark brown. Camoensia* is a member of the great 
Leguminous or bean-like order of plants, but it has no very 
near allies in Africa or elsewhere. It was first noted by 
Wolwitsch (the great German naturalist who so largely 
contributed to our knowledge of South-West African 
flora) in Angola, and he appropriately named so lovely 
and tender a flower after the great poet of his adopted 
couiitry.f In the still, warm night, the clove-like odour 

* C. maxima, in this case — see illustration, Chapter XII. 

t Welwitsch was in the employ of the Portuguese Government. 



VIVI TO ISANQILA. 71 

of these flowers becomes almost overpowering, but there is 
nothing sickly nor narcotic in their perfume. 

The next day I stopped to lunch in a large village, 
Sadika Banza, the last collection of habitations we should 
meet with on our route. It was a largish native town, 
divided into several great squares by hedges of euphorbia. 
The chief, although said to be somewhat cruel to his 
subjects — he is indeed suspected of keeping up human 
sacrifices — ^is immensely polite to Europeans, much re- 
sembling in this certain Eastern potentates who receive 
distinguished strangers with such hospitality that they 
feel obliged to overlook the sufferings of the potentates' 
own people. 

The chief of Sadika Banza sent me eggs, bananas, and a 
fowl on my arrival. The fowl, a somewhat aged male, 
was not immediately needed, so he was tied by the leg to 
a tent-peg. While in this fettered condition, all the other 
village cocks took a mean advantage of him and advanced 
to battle. There would have been little left of my gift 
horse — certainly he was half-plucked — had I not inter- 
vened and carried him into my tent. Between this bird 
and myself a strange attachment arose. At first I deferred 
eating him because he was so tough and thin; then 
gradually he became a privileged pet, allowed to roost 
every night in my tent. During the daytime, when we 
were marching, he was tied up with the cooking-pots and 
carried on a Zanzibari's head, and directly the caravan 
stopped to rest, this Gallas Africanus was released, and 
trotted round the encampment, finding aU sorts of inex- 
pressibly delicious things in the thick grass, to which he 
lustily called the attention of a harem of phantom hens. 
In every village where we paused to rest he gave battle 
stoutly to the local chanticleers, and so identified himself 
with the honour of the expedition that when he was 
killed and half-eaten one evening by a tiger-cat, we felt 
we had lost a doughty champion. Sadika Banza is like 
nearly every Congo village, placed on a high hill, and the 
path which leads up to it is arched over and hidden by 
the immensely thick grass which grows ten and t^<^\^i^ 



72 A jouni^EV UP Tui^ nivi^n conqo. 

feet high. The trial to one's patience occasioned by this 
terrible herbage is very great, and I am sure the grass 
produces more loss of temper, and causes consequently 
more nervous fever than anything in Africa. The act of 
continually pushing apart the intercrossed blades is alone 
very fatiguing to the arms, while the face is scratched and 
tickled by the seeds and awns, and the sliins are bruised 
by constantly coming into contact with the stout, in- 
flexible lower stalks. The grass effectually shuts out all 
prospects of one's surroundings, and harbours and conceals 
snakes, buffaloes, and hostile natives. I do not know a 
more despairing outlook than on arriving at the top of a 
hill in Africa to look down on a tract of waving grass. If 
it be a lake, you can either cross it in canoes or go round 
it ; or if you look forth on a sterile desert you feel you 
may hurry over its sterility and at least see your way 
before you. But grass ! How are you to know what 
dangers it does not veil ? Quagmires, pitfalls, human 
enemies, or noxious beasts ? Fortunately this part of the 
Congo region is not all grass ; the valleys are filled with 
fine forests, where you may walk pleasantly at midday in 
the cool, sweet shade, under the grandly overarching trees. 
And here it is that the African flora is best represented. 
On each side of the path are beautiful cannas, thickly 
growing, with their crimson flower-spikes and yellow- 
green leaves, telling out strongly against the dark purple- 
green foliage behind. In the interior of the wood may be 
discerned flecks of colour caused by the orange flowers of 
a species of Jatropha* and by the delicate pinky-mauve 
blossoms of the Amomum, There are strange Arums and 
Anonas and many sprays of a scarlet Musscenda, which 
grows as a tall tree, and of a large white Musscenda, 
clematis-like, trailing over the bushes and undergrowth. 
Myriads of little blue Commelynce deck the ground, and 
there are blue bean-flowers and white, purple Emilicc and 
GynurcBy mauve and white Cleome, and large yellow 
mallows, while for absolute gorgeousness nothing can 

* J, multifidn. 



nvl TO ISAmiLA. 73 

Compal'e with the divers gourds and seed vessels of the 
many species of GucurUtacecey v^hich v^hen ripe, split open 
to expose the crimson interior, where the black seeds are 
laid in tempting rows to invite the birds to assist in their 
distribution. Indeed the whole effect in floral colouring 
like this is to suggest a tremendous competition going on 
amongst the many plants for the favourable notice of 
birds and insects, as if the flowers were advertising their 
advantages, and saying to the bees, " Your patronage is 
earnestly solicited." Certainly every taste is consulted, 
and every bait is offered in the way of gaudy colour and 
attractive scent, and all to ensure the possession of large 
families of children, and to effect their dispersal about the 
world. 

In tropical Africa, at least, is invalidated the theory of 
some naturalists, that the equatorial regions cannot offer 
flower-shows like those of the temperate zone. 

As we near the little river Buzi, the forest comes to an 
end, and on the farther side of that stream the country is 
harsh and stony. We camped out on the top of a small 
eminence, and were much troubled by horrible little black 
flies which settled in clouds on one's hands and face, and 
sucked blood until they fell off senseless. 

The next day we reached the Bundi. This stream lies at 
the bottom of a very deep ravine, and though it is over 
thirty feet broad, it flows absolutely hidden under the 
magnificent forest that overshadows its tumultuous course. 
The descent and ascent of this ravine are extremely steep, 
and as the path lies through dank forest, and is on a 
clayey soil, the passage requires considerable care to 
avoid slipping and rolling head foremost into the river. 
Several of the carriers do come down now and again very 
sharply in a sitting posture, but as it is a point of honour 
not to let go their loads, no casualty happens to the 
luggage. As the river was swollen and extremely rapid, 
I crossed it on the shoulders of Faraji, who was supported 
both behind and before by the other two Zanzibaris, and 
beyond getting my feet wet, I reached the other side in 
perfect comfort. 



74 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

Between the river Bundi and the Lulu lay a dismal 
region. One might say, fancifully, that it was under thei 
enchantment of some ill-disposed wizard who had cast a 
spell over everything ; perhaps the evil genius of Africa 
trying to discourage tlie penetration of white men into his 
secrets. The grass is tall, sometimes eight and nine feet 
high. When it is dry it duts you like a razor. It slashes 
you across the face and over the backs of your hands. 
The blades intercroi^s and bar your way like hostile sabres j 
they insultingly whip off your helmet ; they fetter your 
legs and interlace themselves round your ankles ; but, 
like most African difficulties, they lose much of their 
resisting power if boldly encountered. Squeeze your hat 
on tightly, lower your head, put your hands in your 
pockets, and charge through them, and they will yield 
before you. But evidently the wicked genius, seeing this 
does not deter us, calls another agent to his aid. About 
midday, the sky being fairly serene, I notice ne^r the 
horizon little masses of blue-grey cloud, but, as thiey are^ 
blowing away from us, I think them unworthy of atten- 
tion ; until my men, who better know the tokens of African 
weather than I, look at them and say " rain," and although 
I hope they may be wrong, gradually those little masses 
of cloud creep round the horizon, lifting themselves up bit 
by bit, and soon the whole heaven becomes covered with a 
pall of awful black cloud. We have arrived at a little 
camping-place under some shade, and here, in spite of my 
ideas of the connection between trees and lightning, my 
carriers advise me to stop. The rain had already begun 
to hiss down, but fortunately my tent was soon pitched, 
and my luggage brought under shelter. The ground, 
however, was very dank, and oppressed by the gloomy 
sky, I felt disposed to be miserable, especially as clouds of 
horrible mosquitoes tormented me continually, and sadly 
inflamed my hands with their bites. However, with that 
adroitness which most uncivilised races possess of quickly 
lighting a fire, my men had soon made a splendid and 
comforting blaze out of the fragments of wet timber that 
Jaj^ around^ and I presently had water boiling and a 



VIVI TO ISANGILA. 75 

Steaming hot cup of cofTee ready. Then, when I had 
hollowed out a round space in the centre of the tent, and 
filled it with red-hot wood ashes, which diffused a grateful 
sense of warmth and dryness, and at the same time routed 
the many insects, and when my tent was firmly shut 
against the rain, and I had sat down to drink my coffee 
and read some old newspapers, my feeling of discontent 
had completely vanished, and I passed a not unpleasant 
evening writing and reading. It is thus, by taking a little 
trouble to make oneself comfortable under unpromising 
circumstances, that one may alleviate many African dis- 
agreeables, and avoid much ill-health. 

But the next morning was prepared for us a still harder 
trial. Each broad blade of grass was charged with huge 
raindrops, and as we pushed through their interlacing 
stems they showered on us a generous tribute of water. 
In five minutes I was wet through, and with heavy cling- 
ing clothes had to pass on through the wet vegetation, the 
water from the leaves *' swishing " on me as I went. 
Then followed worse still. The clayey path became inter- 
spersed with muddy pools, and soon it was a series of 
black morasses, connected by an occasional isthmus. 
Now, at last, the track frankly recognised the hypocrisy 
of pretending to be a path at all, and for four miles re- 
velled in a wide marsh. This I had to cross on the 
shoulders of Faraji, who, if he had ever heard recited in 
the cafes of Zanzibar the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, 
must have thought that I strongly resembled the " Old 
Man of the Sea," by the firm way in which I clung to his 
stout shoulders. However, he made little of his burden, 
and strode and splashed on through water and mud and 
sharp reeds, till at length, after the wearisome march, 
came a little sandy tract, then clear water, and finally the 
solid earth reasserted itself. The evil genius must evi- 
dently have regarded this as his severest trial, for the 
water in parts reached to the chest of the tall Zanzibaris, 
and the footing was slimy and treacherous. Perhaps he 
was watching our difficulties under the form of one of 
those weird, uncanny marsh-birda vfTaicJft. ^^^\ ^^^ ^vxsss^ 



76 A JOUBIfEr VP the BtVER CONOO. 

rose from the stagnant ooze, and uttering a dismal cry, 
flapped its heavy-winged flight through the miasmatic air. 
It did not rain, but the atmosphere was charged with 
clammy moisture, and gloomy tiers of cloud shut out all 
glimpses of sunshine and brightness. When we at length 
reached firm land, the quaking marsh was exchanged for 
harsh rock and sharp-cutting stones. Nasty, ill-tempered 
looking little bushes, all gnarled and crooked with peevish- 
ness, and bearing lead-coloured, uneatable fruits, dotted 
the dull red soil. There was no sign of animated life — no 
birds or butterflies; all seemed deserted and lone. But 
the hour of our deliverance drew nigh ; from a stony 
height by this time . attained, I suddenly looked down on 
the river Lulu, which was rolling its brown flood through 
a beautiful and thickly-wooded ravine. We hastened 
towards it and were soon at its banks ; but the sorcerer's 
power was not yet exhausted. The river was in full flood, 
and had swept away the rough suspension-bridge of lianas, 
which was used on occasions when the stepping-stone* 
were covered. So I had to sit down and wait till the 
Zanzibaris arrived— for I always walked so quickly that I 
was invariably in advance of the caravan — and two of 
them carried me across the blood-red stream, charged with 
the red soil of the. hills which the heavy rains of the pre- 
ceding night had washed by many temporary rivulets into 
its swollen current. On; the other side of the river Lulu 
every one seemed inclined to repose from their fatigues. 
The loads were all disposed round the camping-place, the 
tent was pitched, and the breakfast put in preparation. 
In the meantime the majority of the men went down to 
bathe. I took off my wet things and laid them on great 
boulders to dry, and also went to wash in the river. The 
water was refreshing and cool, but unfortunately the 
horrible little black flies were still here, and rendered any 
uncovering of one's person torture, for they settled in 
clouds on the naked skin, spotting it with little points of 
blood. After a good rest and an enjoyable meal, I started 
ahead once more with my Zanzibaris. The influence of 
the bad genius was clearly over, and that of the good fairy 



riVI TO I8AN0ILA. 77 

had begun. A different atmosphere reigned here. The 
lowering clouds were lifting and the genial sun was dis- 
persing the general humidity. In the forest through which 
the little track or foot- wide path meanders, the universality 
of beauty fills me with quiet delight. Delicious, pene- 
trating scents from the many flowers embalm the air ; the 
chirping of insects and the pleasant low cries of birds 
gently vibrate on the ear, and the eye is continually 
feasted with the displays of colour or the endless deploying 
of graceful forms. Looking up towards the sky, you see 
the cerulean blue chequered with a fantastic lace- work of 
leaves, and little specks and dapplings of sunlight are 
scattered lightly over' the outer groups of foliage, but 
hesitate timidly before the great depths of solemn gloom 
in the heart of the forest. Much animal life is evident 
here. At almost every turning, the path introduces you 
brusquely to a happy family of monkeys, who have 
descended from the tree-tops to feed on the small ground- 
growing berries, or to plunge their greedy, wasteful fingers 
:into the crimson pulp of the straying gourds. They bound 
up into the trees on your approach, taking refuge, well 
within gunshot, on large platforms and nests of twigs, 
which they seem to have constructed on the upper 
branches.' It would be absolute brutality to take advan- 
tage of their confidence, and bring them down with a 
bullet from your Winchester, when you have plenty of 
provisions in. your cases, and stand in no immediate need 
of roast monkey. Besides, if you are but discreet, and 
behave as becomes Nature's guest, your great hokess will 
show you many of her quaint and beautiful children. 
The green fruit-pigeons startle you in the trees with their 
strange cry, commencing with a whirring noise, two or 
three clucks, and ending up with a sweet and prolonged 
coo. The bee-eaters are swooping in eccentric circles on 
the many flying insects, and little hornbills sit in staid 
immobility on bare and exposed branches, watching the 
bee-eaters, as if they would like to imitate them, but felt 
that such great exertions were unbecoming. These horn- 
bills, large or small, come to the ground to f^ad ^Ass>kS>j^ 



78 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

invariably, no doubt, because it is there that most of their 
food, such as grasshoppers and the exuvisB of animals, 
usually lies. Still they are a curious instance of an 
arboreal type of bird gradually becoming terrestrial again. 

The great ground hornbill which is found pretty well 
all over Africa, except in the purely forest region, is a 
most exaggerated case, for it absolutely avoids the trees. 
Certain cuckoos, parrots, and woodpeckers become ground*- 
loving birds in spite of their zygodactyle feet. I can 
imagine poor Dame Nature nearly losing her temper with, 
for instance, such a thing as a tree-duck. " Whatever," 
she must say, " made you take to living on trees when I 
had shaped and adapted your feet and your body for the 
water? Why can't you know your own mind?" But 
the tree-duck and the ground hornbills and parrots are 
influenced by the same cause that makes a man who has 
been brought up as a land surveyor qualify himself for 
the Stage — the struggle for existence, the necessity of 
finding a place somewhere in life's economy. 

Some such thoughts as these beguile my way through 
many a mile of forest and hill, till at length, arriving on 
the Congo bank at Ngoma, my attention is effectually 
diverted to the imposing spectacle of the Ngoma Falls. 
The standpoint from which one best views them is a little 
platform or quay protected by a breakwater, and pro- 
jecting somewhat into the river. Here lately stood an 
immense mass of precipitous rock; but Stanley, in 
opening a rapid route to Isangila, blasted the side of this 
cliff, and over the debris constructed a passable way. It 
was this that gained for him the name of Bula Matadi, or 
the stone-breaker, among the astonished natives. From 
this quay at Ngoma you command a splendid view. 
Nearly in front of you two branches of the Congo, 
separated by a long island, come rushing to a coalition, 
like two brothers whom a temporary obstacle has separated, 
or like two great political parties which, in view of the 
difficulties farther on, agree to coalesce, and carry off 
between them the lead that has hitherto been in the 
possession of a mild and temporising eddy. At the 



VIVI TO ISANGJLA. 79 

end of the island, right across the river, are strewn hidden 
rocks, but over these the two meeting currents leap 
triumphantly, and the waves madly race with a joyous 
clamour to their fraternal union. Some distance after the 
junction, froth and roar are over, but a great and irre- 
sistible body sweeps on its course, letting no obstacle 
stem its overwhelming tide. On the island the trees 
bordering the water tremble and nod paralytically as the 
great current strikes against them, but higher up the 
foliage is massive, rich and majestic, and stands haughtily 
unmoved by the racing flood beneath, like an unbending 
aristocracy superciliously regarding the mad progress of 
the democratic torrent that seems so far beneath it. But 
the current, however madly, is flowing towards an end, 
the Sea ; and it either leaves the great trees far, far 
behind it on its course, or, with cruel, overwhelming force 
washes away their foundations, and carries them, poor 
victims, to be dashed to pieces in the cataracts, and to 
strew with their shorn fragments the distant shores where 
the waves of river and sea may drift them. 

The views of water, wood, and rock are so fine from 
here, on this little quay, that in my imagination I see the 
day when civilization shall have covered the Congo, and 
when places like these will be the resort of tourists and 
lovers of nature ; when there shall be a railway from the 
coast, a station a mile off, " Gare des Chutes de Ngoma," 
with omnibuses and touts — "Par ici, monsieur, pour 
I'Hotel du Beau Eivage ; " " The Falls Inn, sir, very 
comfortable, sir, splendid view," and so on. Then there 
will be prospectuses and advertisements in the " Gazette 
d'Isangila " and the " Congo Times." What embarrass- 
ment one will naturally feel at having to choose between 
the Falls Inn and its " twenty acres of tropical forest 
attached," and the Hotel du Beau Eivage with its billiards 
and dancing casino ! 

As I left the spot where I was ruminating on these 
possibilities, and entered the "twenty acres of tropical 
forest attached," I could not escape a pang of regret at 
the thought of the degradation and banalite, t\sa^ ^^5ss^ 



80 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

coming civilization would entail. How lovely the forest 
looked in its virgin state ! Man had meddled with it 
just enough to make a decent path, but no more. One 
could look down, down, down through the mazes of green 
leaves and grey boughs at the twinkling water, which 
flowed under the massive trees in a still and quiet back- 
water. It was a beautiful semi-transparent screen between 
me and the ardent sun, who, through the great and 
spreading leaves, sent shafts of light and glorified whole 
masses of foliage with an aureole of golden green. Up 
above, in the dim purple solitudes of the forest, there were 
mysterious possibilities, an endless field for conjecture and 
for the flight of fancy. What istrange creatures might not 
live in its depths ? What sylvan tragedies went on there 
at night, when the leopard made his descent on a family 
of monkeys just asleep, and awakened the forest with a 
momentary clamour. Perhaps, here at night you would 
hear the great elephants tearing down saplings and 
feeding themselves with jidcy leaves and young shoots. 
At any rate you know the vast green gloom stretches far, 
far away in one direction, and that you will not come 
suddenly upon a row of villas at the other end. And 
when, satiated and filled with beauty, you do leave the 
wood, it is quite comforting to continue your road along a 
plain hillside which calls for no admiration. Beautiful 
scenery is as overwhelming sometimes as the society of 
very distinguished people — the incessant admiration it 
calls for is fatiguing. We crossed a pretty little river, 
and camped out that night on the rising-ground above it. 
Everybody seemed contented and satisfied. I had a 
well-cooked dinner, and sat long afterwards looking at 
the southern constellations and the crescent moon. The 
men chatted and sang round their fires in a happy state 
of fulness, and I went to sleep that night convinced that 
all the disagreeables of the journey were over, and that 
to-morrow morning would see me comfortably settled at 
Isangila. But on the morrow, alas ! the sky was lowering, 
and soon after our departure the rain began. All the 
jpftthways were turned into rushing brooks of red water ; 



VtVi TO tSAmiLA. 81 

the descent towards the Congo became a terrible glissade 
and soon I was thoroughly, hopelessly wet through as 1 
half ran, half waded along the swampy paths, while a 
continuous sheet of water acted on me like a shower-bath. 
At last I turned a corner round the hillside I was des- 
cending, and there, conspicuous on a rising mound, was 
the station of Isangila. The path changed into a broad 
causeway, up which I walked, feeling, now that I was no 
longer in the wilds, somewhat embarrassed by my dis- 
reputable appearance. However it was absolutely neces- 
sary to change my clothes in order to avoid a rheumatic 
attack, so I hastened to present myself to the chief of the 
station, who fortunately would not wait for an explanation, 
but hurried me off to a room, and busied himself so 
effectively in serving out fresh garments, and in pre- 
paring a hot bath, that before many minutes were past, I 
had quickly peeled off my soaked clothes, and had washed 
and clothed myself in dry, if somewhat expansive, habili- 
ments. I was seated at a comfortable repast, and drinking 
endless cups of hot coffee as one by one my bedraggled 
men came in, their burdens terribly soaked. I spent the 
remainder of the day in learning the worst, but fortunately 
although so unprotected my luggage had very little 
suffered within. The rain, which had begun at six this 
morning, lasted for twelve hours without intermission ; a 
thoroughly hopeless, drenching, furious, persistent down- 
pour, and not at all the violent, but fleeting thunder- 
shower one imagines so characteristic of the tropics. 



\ • '• 



■^ r 



82 A JOUHNET UP TUE BtVER CONGO. 



CHAPTER V. 

ISANGILA TO MANYANGA. 

The Isangila Fail — ^Position of the Villa i<— A Native 
Market — The Manioc — Cookery for Exph 5kbs — Ground- 
nut Oil — Toffee — Captain Tuckey's Expedition — Journey 
to Manyanga — Riverside Scenery — Islands — A Whirlpool — 
The Pratincoles — Mbote — Lieutenant Nilis— Disturb anck 
at Manyanga — Different Mediums of Exchange — A Native 
Diet — Woman in Africa — Mlongo-Mlako — Ntombo Mataka 
Falls. 

ISANGILA is a pleasantly situated station on a commanding 
blufif almost overhanging the river. From the terrace of 
the dwelling-house one of the grandest views on the 
Congo may be obtained. Eight in front across the river 
there is a great towering cliff like that above *' Hell's 
Cauldron," which I have previously described, a hill 
cloven in twain, its scarped sides showing the bare purple 
red earth ; but its sombre look is relieved by the bright 
green grass that clothes the little knolls and irregularities 
varying its sheer descent towards the Congo, and the 
graceful crown of forest which lends a pretty finish to its 
somewhat gaunt head. At its base, the river, which has 
hitherto been gliding onwards with deceitful smoothness 
and a glassy surface, suddenly breaks into white foam and 
frothy waves, but only that part of it near the base of this 
cliff; the other half of the great river goes rolling on 
smooth and unrufiled, still mirroring the clouds and the 
hills, till at length the whole stream takes one great 
bound over some hidden ledge of rocks, and the mass of 
this mighty current is lashed and churned into a terrible 
conflict of waves. Bight across its breadth seethes a zone 



ISANaiLA TO MANYAKGA. 83 

of dazzling foam, aod from the constant oncome and recoil 

of the masses of water rise tall columns of spray into the 
air, descending in glittering drops on the tree-covered 




islands, and fonning imder the sun's rays fitful gleams of 
raintww colours tlmt at first seem hallucinations of the 
eye. Below this great Isangila Fall (rapid is almost a 
better word) the harassed river breaks away vaifc -ciaK^ 
^1. 



H 



A JOPRKSr nP THE itiVEH CONGO. 



little far-ofif bays of quiet water where it seems to dally 
and rest amid the wooded islets, pausing to collect itself 
for another rush towards the ocean. At this opportune 
spot the river Luffl, come from a great distance south- 
wards, ventures timidly to join itself to the great Congo 
stream, and fortunately fiui£ it in a placid mood, smiling 




at the sky, and gently lapping tlie shores of its verdant 
archipelago, 

Isangila station is on a weU chosen and healthy site, and 
the beautiful views around it alone render it a pleasant 
sojourn; but hitherto it has suffered some disadvantage 
from being a long way off the native villages and markets, 
which are situated at some little distance from the 
river, and along the native roads in the interior. The fact 
is, that from Stanley Pool to the coast the native trade — 
or ivory — routes do not closely follow the river Congo 
hat ra^er diverge from it right and left, taking a more 



ISANOILA TO MANTANOA. 85 

direct route to the coast. The southern road goes froin 
Stanley Pool to Sao Salvador and debouches on the sea at 
Ambriz and Ambrizete ; and the route along the nopthera 
side of the Congo runs also at a distance of several miles 
from the river's bank, and divides into two principal 
branches, one going from Manyanga to the river Niari- 
Kwilu and the sea, and the other rejoining the Congo at 




NGILA FALL, 



lioma. Consequently, the real villi^e of Isangila is 
situated on this important trade route and at a distance ot 
six or seven miles from the river. This renders it some- 
what more difficult to procure plenty of fresh food from 
the markets ; but by degrees the natives, never long in 
finding out where their best interests lie, are shifting flieir 
great weekly market nearer to the newly-found station. 

One of these native markets is a curious and interesting 
eight to see. They are ^neraWj Ve\i e^erj ^wix «t 's*«c5 



8G A JOUBNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

eight days, either weekly or fortnightly, for the native 
week is of four days only. One of the days of the week 
often bears a distinctive name of " selling," or " market " 
day. The natives wiU often come a hundred miles to 
attend one of these big markets, and there are generally 
over a thousand present. They bring sheep, goats, pigs, 
Muscovy ducks, and fowls for sale or barter, the fowls 
most carefully packed in long wicker cages, fastened 
between two stout poles converging at each end. Eggs are 
usually carried in large finely-plaited baskets ; indeed 
some of their basket-work is so tightly made that it will 
hold water. At the markets between Isangila and 
Manyanga five hundred eggs may be bought at a time. 
The natives also sell fresh vegetables, pumpkins, sweet 
potatoes, and even a wild cabbage, bananas, plantains, 
pine-apples, ground-nuts, sugar-cane, maize, kola-nut 
tobacco, and "Kikwanga." Kikwanga needs a word of 
special mention, it is such an important article of con- 
sumption in the Congo dietary. The root of the manioc,* 
or cassada, a very ancient introduction from Brazil, is 
taken and pounded into a fine white pulp. This is left to 
soak for about twenty-four hours in running water (possibly 
to rid the substance of a certain acid poison attributed to 
the root), and is then allowed to ferment. When worked 
up into a consistence of stiff dough it is divided into 
portions, and each portion is wrapped up in a large green 
leaf until wanted for cooking. Kikwanga tastes and looks 
like sour dough, but it is highly nutritious. The best 
way of eating it is to cut it into very thin slices, and to 
fry these in butter, or if butter be not procurable, in 
ground-nut oil, easily extracted from Arachis hypogcea. 
Perhaps a simple receipt for doing so might interest 
intending African travellers who are reading these pages. 
Take a bushel of ripe ground-nuts that have previously 
been dried in the sun, pound them to a pulp, and put 
them in a cauldron of boiling water. The oil will rise to 
the surface, and can easily be skimmed off and put apart 

* Manihot utilissima. 



ISANGILA TO MANYANGA. S7 

into a vessel. The residue is excellent fattening food for 
fowls, and the oil itself is almost indistinguishable from 
the best olive in taste. Indeed most of the olive-oil we 
use in England is nothing but the oil of ground-nuts, 
which are exported largely from West African ports to 
Marseilles, to be there manufactured and flavoured into 
various salad oils christened by different names. This oil 
of ground-nuts is excellent as a kitchen grease and as a 
lamp-oil. I will even give you another recipe in which 
this substance may be advantageously employed. Take 
a quantity of sugar-canes, some nine or ten sticks, peel 
them, cut them up into small cubes, and mash these to 
a pulp, straining off the abundant liquor into a large pot ; 
put this over the fire to boil, and at the end of an hour 
and a half you will rejoice to find the sweet syrupy liquor 
reduced to a considerable quantity of gluey barley-sugar. 
If you find yourself as I did for several months without 
any other form of saccharine matter, this will make a 
useful addition to your daily fare, and when mixed and 
cooked with the right proportion of ground-nut oil will 
give you a most toothsome toffee. Little expedients and 
shifts like these serve considerably to lighten the explorer's 
lot, and to render palatable many forms of native food. 

An African market with so many commodities to sell 
and so many eager sellers and loungers, is a most ani- 
mated scene. The din of voices may be heard afar off, 
and when you enter the great open square, where, under 
the shade of great trees, perhaps a thousand people are 
disposed in little chaffering groups round their heaps of 
wares, it is worse than the parrot-house at the Zoological 
Gardens. The women are the keenest traders, they 
haggle and scream and expostulate, and chuckle aside 
over their bargains, whilst the hulking men lounge about 
in good-humoured listlessness, or squat in rows stolidly 
smoking. Although the strife of tongues is great, few 
real quarrels occur. There is in most cases a chief of the 
market, perhaps an old Fetish man, who regulates all 
disputes, and who so heavily fines both litigants that all 
are chary of provoking bis ?n:bitxa,t.iw., XVS.^ N^-^SwSv^^^J^ 



88 A JOURNEY UP TEE BIVER CONOO. 

but one day, and then for the rest of the "week" or 
"fortnight" the market-place is void and desolate; only 
the old wicker baskets, banana-skins, corn-shucks, feathers, 
and egg shells remain to witness to the great assemblage 
which has taken place. Of such a kind is the great 
market near IsangUa, and there are similar gatherings at 
Manyanga, Lutete, and in proximity to most of Mr. 
Stanley's stations. 

Before I leave the subject of Isangila to proceed with 
my description of the river, 1 might mention that this was 
almost the farthest point reached by Captain Tuckey's 
expedition, and was called by them " Sangalla." Some of 
them did, indeed, penetrate nearly as much farther as 
about where " Baynesville," a station of the Baptist 
mission, is situated, but the general researches of the 
expedition may be said to have been arrested at Isangila. 
Poor Captain Tuckey here thought that the greatest 
difficulties were vanquished, and imagined that the com- 
paratively tranquil stream which he saw before him 
indicated the absence or unimportance of further cataracts. 
Had he not broken down and died at that time would he 
possibly have been able to struggle past the greater diffi- 
culties beyond, with a fiercer population opposing his 
advance ? I think not, and his expedition appears from 
the very first, hopelessly and sadly foredoomed to those 
who read its records with the fuller knowledge of to-day. 

The journey* to the next station, Manyanga, may be 
made by water, the rapids on this part of the Congo being 
just passable in a stout boat, or by land along the north 
bank of the river ; but this route is most fatiguing, and 
occupies at least eight days, whereas by water it is only 
four or five. I left Isangila on January 16th with my 
three Zanzibaris, to go up this part of the Congo in a little 
steam-launch the Boyal, now removed to the upper 
river, and forming part of Mr. Stanley's flotilla. The 
scenery along this section of the Congo is at first very 
pretty, A fine papilionaceous tree, Baphia sp., was abuo- 

** A distance of a1x)ut 86 English n^iles, 



ISANGILA TO MANYANQA. 89 

dant, and its blossom sent forth a delicious fragrance. 
The banks were generally richly forested, and masses of 
creepers overspread the riverside trees. Sometimes they 
appeared like a green cloth thrown lightly over the 
foliage, showing its masses and forms distinctly marked 
underneath. Sometimes they formed a delicate green 
cobwebbery, or seemed great walls of vegetation, looking 
as if carefully trimmed into uniformity of surface, but 
often scarcely a foot in thickness. I can hardly give a 
just idea of these beautiful examples of vegetable archi- 
tecture. Often these creepers would stretch out as it were 
a fresh series of constructions, their long, straight lianas 
acting as scaffold poles. Then would come the horizontal, 
interlacing arms, which soon formed a giant lattice-work, 
and on this foundation the beautiful and uniform foliage 
breaks out, until soon great walls and enclosures are 
made, generally round some monster tree. How lovely 
these arbours seemed to rest in ! What an idyllic life one 
might fancy it possible to lead amid these fairy mazes like 
tenderly veiled transformation scenes, where the brilliant, 
glaring sky and its rudely positive white clouds are so 
crossed and recrossed by the boughs and liana ropes that 
the glory of daylight seems to shine afar off beyond the 
meshes of our fairy realm, into which the sun's rays filter 
through the leaf-masses in varying intensity of greenish 
golden light. Beautiful indeed it is, where the monotony 
of verdure is enlivened by the mauve convolvuli with 
crimson centres, by the pale yellow flowers of the creeping 
cucurbits, whose orange-red gourds shine like little lamps 
amid the diapered foliage. The giant-speckled kingfisher 
and his little active black and white brother haunt the 
secluded creeks that these walls of upright vegetation 
enclose ; and on the gaunt, bare branches, forcing their 
way through the tender interlacing creepers like wild 
protesting arms trying to rid themselves of a clinging and 
deceitful embrace, on these gnarled and whitened boughs 
the fishing-eagles perch, greeting our approach with cheer- 
ful boisterous screams. A "giant" heron, too, sat on a 
branph ami(l so^ibr^ ^had^, where he wquWl k^^^ ^j^c^a^^ 



90 



A JOUBNEY UP TBE IIIVEE CONGO. 



quite undistinguishable from the grey boughs and boles 
around him, but overcome with a spasm of tardy fear, he 
flounced out from his retreat, nearly knocked against the 
funnel of the steamer, and flapped his huge wings with 
frightful strivings to get away. 

Here and there the Congo became strewn with rocfcy 
islets, sparsely created with trees ; and in and out of these 
the streim was whirlmg and eddjing and bubbling over 
the hidden rocks We stopped at one of these islands, 
and at this spot the lighter wl hid brcn hitherto towing 




TUB QIAHT KIHGFISHEK (Ceryh 



had to be made fast alongside the steam-launch, for 
together we were to cross a formidable whirlpool. When 
we turned the island we saw the vortex with great flakes 
of foam like balls of cotton-wool dancing madly in a per- 
petual round. Full pressure was put on, and in we went 
— wurra ! — and out again, almost at right angles, so that 
some of the balls of foam, like bewildered captives in an 
enchanter's mi^c circle, are set free by our suddeu 
breaking through the m^es and go gaily floating down 
the stream. 

Sometimes there are long stretches of low rocks in the 
river, Jooking like rows of slates started in a builder'a 



ISANGILA TO MANYANGA, 91 

yard ; and on the shore of the stream and along the island 
beaches would show banks of dazzling white sand, ap- 
parently above flood-mark, since numbers of pratincoles 
had made their nest there. These pretty little birds, called 
scientifically Glareola* are really small waders allied to 
the plovers, with, perhaps, even a far off relationship to 
pigeons and sand-grouse ; but to a superficial observer 
they seem merely large, stout swallows, and certainly 
resemble these birds by the way in which they pursue the 
insects over the surface of the water, flying low and 
catching their prey in mid-flight. On the Congo, between 
Isangila and Manyanga, they are found in flocks of over a 
thousand at a time, absolutely covering the isolated rocks 
on which they perch, t Perhaps their presence in such 
large numbers is the reason why in this stretch of the 
river mosquitoes are so happily absent. 

In the broader parts of the Congo, groups of trees stand 
in the very middle of the river, stemming its rapid flood. 
They must mark- the sites of rocks and banks uncovered 
in the dry season, or, more probably, of newly submerged 
islands, for otherwise the seedling tree could hardly have 
attained suflicient growth in one dry season to withstand 
the river*s flood. Some distance beyond the Itunzima 
Falls, which are not very striking, the Congo broadens 
greatly ; but nearing Manyanga, the scenery of the river 
becomes in the highest degree commonplace. Low red 
hills, streaked and spotted with dull yellow-green, and 
fringed at their bases with scanty forest, border the great 
watercoui'se, which itself seems to have renounced all its 
high spirits and to have assumed a wearisome platitude of 
expression. 

Groups of natives on the south bank are squatting on 
the sand, with their fishing-nets put up to dry. Their 

* Probably G, Nordmani. 

t In the 'Last Journal of W. A. Forbes,' whose death was one 
of the greatest losses British science has sustained (he died on the 
Niger, in January, 1883), I find the following extract referring to 
his journey up the Niger (p. 614, «Ibip,' Oct. 1883). "On one of 
the banks, Glareola cinerea in thousands, with a few of a darker ouq 
( ? Nordmani)^ one of which I got. , . ," 



92 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

dogs are prick-eared and spotted yellow and white, 
exactly like those in a Noah's ark. They salute us with 
load cries of "Mbote," a frequent polite salutation 
pronounced in English, " Mbawtay "), which means " good," 
" well," " smoothly," and, in fact, aU sorts of conciliatory 
things, and is commonly used along the Congo, between 
the coast and the Equator. " Mbote " is a most useful 
term to acquire, and only practice can teach the different 
meanings which varied modulations of the voice may give 
to it. On the Upper Congo, beyond the Pool, when 
entering a strange village, and seeing rather suspicious 
looks directed at my uncanny white face, I would say in 
inquiring tone " Mbote, Mbote ? " and then the natives 
would either relax into a grin and repeat the word volubly, 
or in obstinate cases scowl more determinedly, and yell 
" Mbote ve, Mbote ve ! " (ve, pronounced vay, means " No "). 
It can be made a very pretty word ; and when a smiling 
native says to you rapidly, " Mbote, Mbote, Mbote," it is 
like patting you on the back, and is, indeed, often 
accompanied by that caressing action. 

On the morning of the fifth day after leaving Isangila 
we arrived at Manyanga. This station is decidedly " a 
city set upon a hill," and people with weak lungs or 
unsteady hearts may well stand appalled at such an ascent 
as lies before them up that winding red road, nay, even 
hesitate as to whether they will not sooner seek hospitality 
at the snug little Baptist Mission which lies embosomed 
in trees by the water side. But generally the hospitable 
chief of Manyanga station descends from his eyrie to meet 
his guests, and aided by the stout alpenstock which is 
lent you, and beguiling the steep ascent with a pleasant 
interchange of question and answer, you forget to murmur 
at its steepness, and find yourseK quite unexpectedly 
before the verandah of the principal dwelling-house. 

I had pleasant days at Manyanga* whenever I stopped 
there. Its chief, Lieutenant Nilis, was a charming and an 

* I believe this station no longer exists now, or has passed into the 
hands of the French, who acquired the north bank of the Congo from 
ManyangSL io the TJbangi Kiver, — H. H, J, 



ISANGILA TO MANltAMA. d3 

intellectual man, who knew how to make life at his 
station most agreeable for his guests. 

To his initiative the entire present construction and 
arrangement of the buildings are due. There are three 
houses for Europeans, many capacious brick-built stores, 
and quite a large " coloured '' town of Zanzibari, Kabinda, 
and other native huts. The making of sunburnt-bricks 
from the surrounding soil has turned out very successful, 
and the bricks thus made are better adapted for the 
construction of durable buildings than wood, which is so 
liable to the attacks of white ants, or stone which is 
both costly and damp-retaining. 

Manyanga was the scene of the only serious disturbance 
which has as yet taken place between the expedition of 
Mr. Stanley and the natives. While the former was away 
at Stanley Pool, dragging his boats to the upper river, the 
numerous natives of this well-populated district picked a 
quarrel with the little garrison of the station in the hope 
of finding it an easy prey. The dispute is said to have 
first arisen in a " question de pores.'' That is to say, that 
the natives complained that the pigs of the station played 
havoc with their fields of manioc and maize ; perhaps they 
did, but the chief of the station (the predecessor of Nilis) 
was quite willing to indemnify the natives for any harm 
his pigs may have occasioned to their crops had they not 
taken the law into their own hands and carried off the pigs. 
It was, in fact, for them nothing but an excuse for a 
general plunder they had long been meditating ; for we 
are no longer in the district of the " Congo " people proper 
— the gentle, indolent race of Vivi and Isangila — but in 
the country of the much fiercer and more energetic Ba- 
sundi, the country of " Sundi " heard of by Tuckey, a tribe 
who long stood between the races of the interior Congo 
basin and the traders of the coast. However, they in this 
case found out their mistake. The besieged garrison 
sallied out with spirit, drove away the host of attacking 
natives, and burnt down their villages in reprisals. Then 
the natives, quickly recognising the only thing they bow 
to — superior force — came to terms, and paid a fime in Iswa^ 



94 A JOURNEY UP THE BlVER CONGO. 

imposed on them as a war indemnity. Three months 
afterwards they were the best of friends with the white 
man, arid were the first amongst the Congo tribes to 
furnish of their own free will hired porters to transport 
the goods of the expedition. Now Manyanga is so 
entrenched and fortified that probably none but a European 
army could capture it, and its communications with the 
Congo are so admirably arranged that the river acts as 
a continual basis of operations, whence supplies may 
always be obtained by steamer from Isangila. 

Manyanga is built on a narrow plateau surmounting a 
precipitous hill of perhaps four hundred feet in height. 
There is a slight bay, or inlet, of the Congo at its base 
where boats can be safely moored in a little backwater of 
the Congo. On either side of the hill is a deep ravine with 
nearly precipitous sides, so that it is nearly impregnable 
on three sides, and only the narrow neck of the level 
plateau which connects with the hills of the interior has to 
be defended. Through the ravine on the right hand of 
the station tumbles a little stream of clear water, much 
liaunted by crocodiles in its lower course. On the further 
side of the stream, at a much lower level than the station, 
is situated the Baptist Mission, very bright and pretty in 
outward appearance, embowered in fine groves and close 
to a charming little creek of the river, but for all tliis 
iinhealthy, 1 believe. It is one of the few places where 
I have heard of dysentery on the Congo. One of the 
Baptist missionaries recently died from that disease, con- 
tracted at the mission station of Manyanga. On the 
other hand the sanitary reputation of the plateau is un- 
doubtedly good, and there is a freshness and breeziness 
in the air that you miss down below by the river side. I 
am convinced Mr. Stanley has done wisely, apart from 
strategic reasons, in placing all his stations on the highest 
ground attainable.* 

* I am afraid, both Mr. Stanley and myself afterwards arrived at 
a different opinion. The stations set on a hill all proved unhealthy, 
on account of their exposure to the cold night winds, and were nearly 
all abandoned after several years. — H. H, J. 



I8ANGILA TO MANTANQA. 97 

Manyanga is a great food centre. I have already- 
hinted at its abundantly supplied markets, where eighty 
or ninety fowls, fifty goats, troops of sheep, and hundreds 
of eggs may be purchased at a single time. The favourite 
medium of exchange here is blue glass beads, and hand- 
kerchiefs and stuffs will scarcely be taken at any sacrifice. 
Indeed it is quite a false idea to imagine that you can go 
anywhere in Africa with any sort of bead and any kind 
of cloth. Each district has its peculiar tastes and fancies 
to consult, and you might starve in one place with bales 
of goods that would purchase kingdoms in another. In 
one part of the Congo basin red is the favourite colour, 
in another blue, in a third green, and I have come across 
some tribes where white cloth far outvalued coloured or 
patterned stuffs. Between Vivi and Isangila you will 
find red handkerchiefs, striped cloth, brass " tacks," gin, 
and wire useful. At Manyanga blue beads rule the 
market ; at Stanley Pool brass rods. On the Upper river, 
besides most of the articles already mentioned, " cowries " 
come into use, and are used freely as small change. 

At Manyanga, owing to the abundance of native food, 
and the scarcity of nearly every European article of diet 
which then existed, we were able to test the possibility 
of living solely on the products of the country, a state of 
affairs which, owing to the expense and difficulty of 
transport, is very likely to occur, and must eventually 
largely influence the conditions of colonization. On the 
whole I had little to complain of. We had no tea, coffee, 
cocoa, wine, sugar, butter, or bread, it is true, but with 
a little ingenuity substitutes were found for many of these 
adjuncts to European living. The goats gave plenty of 
milk, and we drank it hot, and " made believe " it was tea. 
Palm wine was our only intoxicant, and " Kikwanga " in 
some way took the place of bread. Palm-oil fried our 
meats, enriched our stews, and fed the lamps that lighted 
up our evening meal. We had superb desserts of massive 
pine-apples, bananas made puddings that were richly 
sweet, and plantains took the place of potatoes. I never 
ate with better appetite and rarely lived more happily. 



98 A JODBNET VP THE SIVEB CONOO. 

The daily arrivals of natives at tlie station were always 
an amusement. Sometimes they -would come with a 
baaing and protesting goat or sheep for sale. One day 
a party of men arrived with a very stout lady of whom 
they wished to dispose for her value in blue beads. She 
was quite the thing for me, they were convinced, and 
■would make an excellent lady-help for my next expedi- 
tion. There was no end to her catalogue of graces and 




HLOMGO-JfLAEO, KtSa OF DAHDANOA. 



accomplishments. She wore moreover a handsome nose- 
ring, which would be given in to clench the bargain. 
Unfortunately the price asked was quite beyond my 
means, nor was Kills able or willing to acciuire her 
services, so, in common witli some goats and fowls we 
had also declined, she was reluctantly returned to her 
relatives. There is no doubt that if the native porters 
can be induced, as is not infrequently the case, to bring 
£heir women with them, these latter prove a valuable 



mANGILA TO MANTANGA. 99 

adjunct to the expedition. They carry burdens nearly as 
heavy as those borne by their husbands and brothers, and 
carry them much more cheerfully. They wash and cook 
better than the men, and have a way of preparing manioc 
for food that seems beyond masculine knowledge or skill. 
In steady hard work and endurance of fatigue they 
certainly excel the other sex ; they ask less pay, they eat 
less food, and, in short, I should seriously recommend the 
utilization of female labour in the formation of all African 
expeditions. Many Zanzibari women accompanied their 
husbands across Africa in Stanley's great journey, and he 
writes, touchingly, in the 'Dark Continent,' respecting 
their patient endurance and dogged perseverance. 

The fact is, woman in Africa has not emerged from her 
proper status — her proper African status, I mean. When 
this great continent is fairly civilized, is traversed by 
railroads, and intersected by canals, when all the rough, 
hard, coarse battling with natural obstacles is over, then 
man — African man — can afford, if lie will, to indulge in a 
more delicate and finer-natured spouse, who is worthy to 
be conceded the privileges which chivalry grants to the 
artificial weakness of her sex. At present the women lead 
a harder life than the men, and they are consequently 
inferior to the better-nurtured males in mental develop- 
ment and physical beauty. Conscious of their lower 
grade in society, they are thus ever anxious to merit by 
their assiduity in well-doing the approbation of the 
nobler sex. 

There are several native "kings" round Manyanga. 
One of them was a constant visitor at the station, and a 
terrible beggar, always on the look-out for cloth and beads. 
His name was Mlongo-Mlako, and he was chief of a town 
or district called Dandanga. Shortly after my arrival, he 
made a call on us, avowedly to see the new white man, 
and probably also with the idea that there might be a 
little "cloth" to be given away. His majesty of Dan- 
danga nearly fell a victim to the superstitions of his 
people a short time ago. A wife of one of his sub-chiefs 
fell ill and died ; and, as is always the case in thia 



100 



A JOnslfBT TTP THE STVEB CON&O. 



country, the mediciQe-man was called upon to say who 
had " bewitched " her. He assembled a sort of coroner's 
inquest, and they came to the unanimous tx)nclusion that 
King Mlongo had killed the woman with big sorceries. 
The wretched monarch would have had to take " poison- 
water" had not an English missionary opportunely 
arrived at his village, and laughed the people out of their 
foolish superstition. To please the white stranger, the 




king was pardoned by the fetish man, but pardoned 
reluctantly, for bis real sin ' was not having bewitched 
a woman, but being a terrible miser. Avarice amongst 
these people is considered the blackest of crimes, and had 
king Mlongo been in the habit of freely lavishing his gin 
and his cloth on his subjects, his loving people would not 
have fixed upon him as a sorcei-er, nor the heir-apparent 
have been so active in the prosecution. He was very 
M'ttJe grateful to hia benefactor, however, and immediately 



I8ANG1L*J TO MANXANQA.., 101 

, . , i 

presented himself at the mipsioa, not to thank its head for 
saving his life, but to demand a pieco of cloth hecause his 
life was saved. On the occasion of tliis particular visit 
to the station, he was accompanied by the? wtdjowed chief 
whose wife he was supposed to have bewitched. They 
were now on the most amicable terms, and the widowed 
one, having daubed his ugly face with charcoal in sign^qf 
mourning, gave himself up to unlimited merriment, and^ 
was thinking, he told me, of marrying again. 

Above Manyanga all further navigation of the river 
ceases, and there are quite close to the station the great 
falls of Ntombo Mataka, where the successive descents of 
the Congo, as nearly as anywhere, approach cascades in 
appearance. Seen from the heights above, these falls 
appear like two great " steps " of water, and the river here 
descends perhaps some thirty feet in all. The roar of the 
cataract can be heard miles off, and the backwater it 
creates is so powerful, that at the sides of the river the 
water persistently flows with a strong stream in the 
reverse direction to the central current. It needs some 
care to cross the river near the station lest the boat be 
drawn into the backwater, to be carried forcibly up into 
the cataracts, whirled round and dashed to pieces. 

To reach Stanley Pool therefore, from Manyanga, you 
leave the Congo, and follow the native roads either to the 
north or south of tlie river. The southern route is by far 
the easier and safer to follow, as the hills are less steep, 
and the natives are pleasanter and kindlier people to deal 
with than the cantankerous Ba-bwende to the north. In 
eitlier case the distance to be walked on foot is about one 
hundred miles. 

Some few miles behind Manyanga, one of the much- 
used native tracks passes from Stanley Pool to the upper 
waters of the Niari and its tributary the Ludima, and 
thence to the sea. This useful alternative route has been 
thoroughly mapped and surveyed by Mr. Stanley's agents 
who have founded a chain of stations along its course.* 

♦ Which wa» afterwards giyen up to Fiance, 



102 A JOURNEY UP TEE ^B'lVER CONGO. 









r.\ .' 



• 






r • r 



M •■ » 



CHAPTEE VI. 

MANYANGA TO LEOPOLDVILLE (STANLEY POOL). 

Road to Lutete — Q'he Chief Lutete — Ravines on the Road 
TO Stanley Pool — The Edwin Arnold IUver — A sudden 

StOBM — Kl>'DNESS OP THE ZaNZIBARIS— An OrGIE OF PINE- 
APPLES — 'Irapping Bats— a Fetish-House — Crossing the 
Ineissi — A Leopard's Footprints — Carved Logs — Ihe 
Wa-mbuno— Ngoma — LEOPOLDVILLE— The Missions — 'J'he Food 
QuESTioiv — The Future of Leopold ville. 

As usually happens in this country — whenever you have 
got everything ready for a start — the morning I was pre- 
paring to leave Manyanga for the Upper river w^ith a 
hastily formed caravan of Zanzibaris, the rain came 
pelting dow^n, and kept us waiting vainly for its cessation. 
At last, towards evening, just to make a start, I availed 
myself of the kind oflfer made by the Baptist missionary 
then in residence at the little Mission below the hill, and 
packed the men, the goods and myself in the large and 
roomy Mission boat, while the missionary himself steered 
us over the difl&cult passage. I camped out' that night 
opposite Manyanga, intending to start by the early dawn 
along the southern road to Stanley Pool, via Lutete. The 
weather was miserably wet, and the ground on which the 
tent was pitched became a sort of morass, into which the 
iron legs of my bed gradually sank under my weight, so 
that I found myself and my bedclothes nearly level with 
the muddy grass. However, I arose the next morning 
with nothing worse than a severe sore throat, which 
the continuous exercise of the long day's walk quickly 
dissipated. 

Tiie general scenerj on the road to J-utete is interesting 



MANTANGA TO LEOPOLD VILLS (STANLEY POOL). 103 




I WU4> PIKE-iPrLB. 



104 A JOUBNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

in character, and offers many beautiful landscapes, which, 
however, are all of the same type and grow somewhat 
monotonous in feature. A great stretch of valley, filled 
with rich forest, with a sounding stream that is seen 
flashing through the trees, is bounded by boldly-shaped 
hills, between each of which lesser valleys lie, that seem, 
as it were, tributaries of the great one, some of them 
mere crevasses in the mountains, but each with its tiny 
stream, its cascades, and its velvety woods. Occasionally, 
especially near Lutete, patches are cleared in the valleys, 
and the rich soil which the rain is always washing down 
from the hills is planted with manioc, tobacco, ground- 
nuts, and bananas. This gives, at times, a strangely 
civilized look to the country, and suggests the idea that 
in the future, when colonists flock to occupy the Congo 
territories, these lowlands will become true golden valleys, 
bringing forth all the products .of the tropics ; while their 
hill-sides, terraced and planted with vines, will be sur- 
mounted by many a fine-built habitation, from which the 
Neo-African may complacently look down on his rice- 
fields and his gardens, or his plantations and his sugar- 
brakes, which lie basking under an equatorial sun, 
irrigated by a never-failing stream. And what a future 
studying-ground for scientific men! When people have 
conquered their unreasonable fear of the Congo climate, 
and some medical man has deigned to study the local 
hygiene, and so instructed us as to what we should eat 
and drink, and how we should live that we may best 
become acclimatized — when transport is facilitated and 
communication with the outer world easy and assured, 
then let the scientist come and found his botanical garden 
in one valley, and his vivarium in another, whilst in his 
comfortable brick-built house, built of the bricks that are 
locally made, and exposed to the dry and healthy breezes 
that assail the hill- tops, he may prepare his specimens, 
and arrange his accumulated facts as much at his ease as 
if he were in Kew or the British Museum. 

The rounded hills that encircle these luxuriant valleys 
are covered with strong coarse grasses of several sorts, of 




SCENERY NEAR mTETB. 



MANYANGA TO LJ^OPOLD VILLE {STANLEY POOL). 107 

which the flower stalks often attain the height of fifteen 
feet, and with gnarled and stunted trees, bearing leaden- 
coloured, almost uneatable fruit. I should omit the 
qualifying "almost," were it not that I have seen the 
Zanzibaris occasionally gnawing them. These trees are 
spread in a sparse manner over the hill-side, and give it 
from a distance a spotted appearance. This difierence in 
richness of vegetation that exists between hills and valleys 
in this part of Africa is not due so much to the relative 
abundance of moisture as to the prevailing grass fires in 
the dry season. These sweep over the hills at times, 
destroying all the finer trees, so that only these stunted 
shrubs and the rank grass spring up from their roots 
anew and flourish for a season. Therefore it is that 
around the villages whose plantations are protected from 
the ravages of the flames, as far as may be possible, rich 
forest invariably exists, and their presence may be in- 
fallibly detected in this country by the groups of fine trees 
and patches of purple forest growing isolated on the many 
hill-tops. Again, in all shut-in valleys and river-courses, 
where the fires are choked, there vegetation of the most 
wonderful character riots in all the wild luxuriance of its 
unchecked growth. I have already alluded to this subject 
in my description of the villages at Yelala, and shall make 
some further remarks in treating of tlie forest region 
beyond Stanley Pool. 

Lutete is a pleasant little station, situated about eight 
miles from the Congo, on a high plateau, and conmianding 
the great ivory route which runs from Stanley Pool to 
Sao Salvador and Ambrizete. This important native road 
gradually diverges from the Congo to the south-west. 
Already at Lutete it is over eight miles in a direct line 
from the river bank. The bit of connecting road between 
Lutete and the landing-place opposite Manyanga, has been 
wholly or partially constructed by Mr. Stanley's assistants. 
That, and the short bit of road between Vivi and Isangila, 
round Ngoma falls, are all the engineering his expedition 
has at present undertaken, although with time and men 
Jily. Stanley hopes to construct a catria.^<2i^\Aft ^o.*^^ ^\s5«s. 



108 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVEB CONQO. 

Vivi to Stanley Pool, to be perhaps followed by a 
railway. 

Lutete Station takes its name from a powerful young 
chief in the neighbourhood, who has built a large village, 
and named it, as is the custom, after himself. His town 
contains finer-built houses than any native settlement for 
miles round, and Lutete himself is a most enterprising 
young fellow, often accompanying his caravans of ivory 
down to Ambrizete, on the coast, whence he returns with 
all sorts of trophies of civilization, such as coloured plates 
from the ' Graphic ' and bottles of soda-water. The latter, 
he is half frightened of, and calls them *' devil-water ; " 
but he generally makes a present of them to the chief of 
the station, who, of course, handsomely acknowledges the 
gift with more than its equivalent in cloth. The coloured 
pictures from our wide-spread illustrated papers are 
proudly stuck up in the chiefs own house. Whenever 
Lutete wishes to impress some uncouth savage chief from 
the interior, he takes him into his palisaded hut and shows 
him Cinderella with her broom, or ' Goody Two Shoes,' 
telling him, of course, bombastically, that they are special 
presents from " Mputo" * (beyond the sea), and the won- 
dering savage goes away much impressed by tlie power 
and influence of Lutete. Shortly after my arrival Lutete, 
who was ill, sent his head wife to call upon me instead, 
and she brouglrt me a large jar of palm wine as a present. 
This lady was extremely plain, but she was Lutete's 
favourite wife because she has borne him many children. 

* " Mputo " literally means, "agitated water," and is in that sense 
primarily applied to the rapids of ihe Congo, where they seethe and 
loam. Then further it is used to descrihe the sea with its troubled 
billows, and in a still wider sense means all that comes from the sea. 
The natives of the Lower Congo believe, or used to believe, that all 
white men came up out of the sea, and that our clothes were made 
of the skins of sea animals. Consequently, " Muene Mputo " means 
"• chief of the sea '* viz., chief of all the white men, and not, as the 
Portuguese would have us believe, ** the King of * Puto ' or Portugal." 
If the natives wished to say " Portugal " they would call it " Poltogale," 
not " Mputo." Further up the Congo, beyond the Pool, the natives, 
knowing little or nothing of the sea, cali us " Sons of the S^y," or 
^^Sqbs ofHes^veu,^* 



MANYANGA TO LJEOPOLIiVlLLE (8TANLST POOL). 109 

Having passed one day at this station to rest, I again 
started with my caravan of thirty men to journey on 
towards Stanley Pool. The country we passed through, 
immediately before and after leaving Lutete, was of rather 
a peculiar appearance. Here and there were deep gullies, 
ravines, gulches, canyons — I know not what to call them — 
huge clefts in the land, either made or modified by water 
eating into the soft red soil. They are similar to the same 
strange valleys and ravines round about Loanda, in 
Portuguese Africa. Their depths, however, here are filled 
with the richest, most fantastic forms of vegetation, and 
to judge from the cries and noises that ascend out of the 
gulf of green, these glorious forests are peopled with many 
birds and monkeys. Any one of these ravines would be a 
rare hunting ground for the naturalist. 

Some distance after leaving Lutete, on attaining a high 
plateau which is traversed by the native path, a grand 
view may be obtained of the Edwin Arnold Eiver, as it 
comes leaping in tremendous cascades into the Congo. 
The waters of this tumultuous stream look exactly like a 
white cloth laid at intervals over the purple- wooded hills, 
for the distance at which you are standing does not permit 
you to see the motion of its stream, and the sheet of 
wliite spray is apparently as still and picture-like as if 
photographed. 

The second night of my journey a disaster occurred to 
me, but one of such a common type in African travel that 
I venture to retail it to you here, so that you may take 
the good with the ill, and not imagine a Congo traveller's 
experience all sunshine and brightness. We were camped 
in a village as usual, and my tent was to all appearance 
carefully and correctly pegged out. I had eaten a well- 
cooked little dinner with keen appetite, and then had 
enjoyed the unwonted luxury of a novel over a cup of 
coffee. When at length I grew tired of reading, I got into 
bed, leaving my book open, and most of the things lying 
unpacked and in disorder. I reckoned that there would 
be plenty of time to pack up in the morning. As I lay 
on my comfortable bed, soothed by a delicious a^\3L«ft. <it 



•no A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

repose, I heard the rain beginning to pat down on my tent 
in great drops, while the rising wind soughed mournfully 
through the neighbouring trees ; but this dismal state of 
the weather outside only accentuated the sense of comfort 
and security within the snug tent, and I was quietly 
falling asleep in a self-satisfied mood, when suddenly the 
wind rose like an angry devil, and puflf! my tent was 
whipped up over my head, and laid flat on the ground a 
few yai'ds off. In a second all was changed, and I was 
beiug brusquely awakened from my reverie, and half- 
drowned by the drenching rain, which was mercilessly 
streaming down on all my treasures. My bed-clothes 
were soaked, my novel — 1 remember it was Alphonse 
Daudet's ' Les Eois en exil ' — was reduced in no time to 
yellow pap, everytliiug was going to ruin and dissolution 
— the rain even beat the ground up into thick mud which 
engulfed most of the smsdler articles ; and all this time I 
was too paralysed by the sudden shock and the cold 
douche of rain to call for help. At last, however, I found 
my breath, and applied it lustily to a small whistle round 
my neck. In a minute the Zanzibaris had rushed from 
an adjoining cottage, and seizing me up in their arms, 
carried me swiftly into shelter. Here, by the side of a 
blazing fire, I dried myself and my bed-clothes, and slept 
soundly on a native bed of matting. It was really 
wonderful the number of things that were saved from the 
wrecked tent and dried by the fire, and my losses were 
limited to the novel afore described, and some trifling 
odds and ends too mixed up with the mud to be detected. 
However, in future I always endeavoured w^hen passing 
the night in a native village to borrow a house to sleep in. 
It is much more comfortable than sleeping in a tent, as 
you have greater space and freer ventilation, a tent always 
being abominably hot and close, whereas the chinks 
between the matting in the sides of the house allow of a 
thorough circulation of air. Then, too, the roof is rain- 
tight, and cannot, except in very rare circumstances, be 
blown away by the wind, and you have a perfectly dry 
and hardened floor. 



MANYANGA TO LEOPOLD VILLE (STANLEY FOOL). Ill 

I more than ever appreciated after this catastrophe the 
admirable qualities of the Zanzibaris, who are never at a 
loss, and who are often most unselfish servants. It quite 
touched me to see, when I staggered into the hut where 
they were sleeping, how one man gave up his bed, another 
his mosquito-curtains, and a third his blankets, in order 
that the " Little Master " might not catch cold wliile his 
things were being dried, and this not only from my own 
men, between whom and myself a real attachment sub- 
sisted, but from Zanzibaris I had only seen and known 
for three days. The Arab mixture in the Zanzibari men 
has not only given them finer features and more refined 
manners, but it has also implanted in them an unselfish- 
ness which is seldom found in the true negro. 

The succeeding day, a bright sun dried up the remaining 
dampness in the ground and atmosphere, and we trudged 
along merrily through beautiful scenery. We are here 
following the great trade route from Stanley Pool to the 
coast, and the sides of the way are strewn with the top 
leaves of pine-apples, which, when the fruit is eaten, are 
thrown away, and, taking root in the rich red soil at the 
side of the path, serve to spread this plant along the 
whole route between Lutete and Stanley Pool, in some 
places, especially in the dank, moist ravines, forming an 
almost impenetrable hedge on each side of the narrow 
path. The inhabitants come to these narrow valleys, and 
fill their long wicker-baskets with the beautiful golden 
fruit which forms now so large a part of their diet. In 
one village we came to, there was a perfect orgie of pine- 
apples going on. The people were too indolent and 
careless even to sell them, and one woman, with whom, 
from pure habit, I was disputing the price of her basketful, 
said in a languid way to Faraji, " Here, take them ; as he 
does not want to pay 'he can have them for nothing." 
The dogs, the cats, the pigs, the goats, the fowls, and the 
children, all lived on pine-apples. The very people had a 
golden tinge about them, as if from the absorption of such 
quantities of mellow fruit, and the fowls I bought here 
had a flavoui* that was quite inexplicable save for tbia 



112 A J0VBNE7 UP THE BIVEB CONGO. 

theory of an exclusive pine-apple diet. Here it was 
quite impossible to resist halting; we arrived at about 
eight in the morning, and for two whole hours we sat 
and ate pine-apples. A few brass rods paid for the 
entire feast, and the generous natives, moreover, brought 
us a heaped-up basketful to carry on our journey. How- 
ever burdened the men might be, this was an extra load 
they never refused. 

Everywhere along the road here, are what seem to be 
rude imitations of telegraph posts, tall straight poles, 
with lines of fine string stretched from pole to pole ; but 
from these strings descend numbers of loops or nooses, 
with a slip-knot. These I took to be for catching birds, 
as you sometimes see in English orchards similar traps 
for catching fieldfares and other fruit-eaters; but on 
inquiry I found they were set for bats, which fly against 
them in the dusk and are thus frequently caught to be 
eaten by the natives. Whether a bat is good for food I 
certainly doubt, the insect-eating ones would not seem to 
be so, and those that only subsist on fruit have an offensive 
smell of musk» But the people here seem to appreciate 
them. About this region the bracken fern, apparently of 
three or four varieties, become very abundant, absolutely 
covering large tracts of land. Where the region is at all 
marshy, along the banks of streams, this is rivalled by 
beautiful lycopodiums of most exquisite fern-like shape, 
and sometimes with a bluish tinge about their fronds. 
Curiously enough, the natives, who have very fair 
elementary notions about natural classification, do not 
recognise the bracken as a fern, but, on the other hand, 
include the lycopods in that order, to which, in their 
language, they give a generic name, ** Manselelc " (plur. 
of Nselele). 

In the midst of the forest we came across a little fetish 
house. It was built of a framework of laths and the roof 
was thatched. On the projecting stakes of the roof plates 
and dishes of European manufacture were " spiked,'' that 
is, by some ingenious means a hole had been roughly 
j[^iorced through their centres, and they were hung on the 



MAN7ANGA TO L^OPOLDVILLE (STANLEY FOOL). 113 

end of the sticks protruding from the thatch of the roof. 
Inside the hut was a circular mound of worked clay, 
on which many different patterns and designs had been 
traced by means of various coloured pebbles, white stones 
and even beads. On each side of this mound stood two 
statues about four feet high, representing separately, in 
the frankest manner possible, the male and female prin- 
ciple. The sex of either figure was so much en evidence, 
that according to our views they would be decidedly 
obscene, though there was nothing intentionally indecent 
about them, and they merely represented to the native's 
mind in a crude manner the, to him, mysterious power of 
generation or creation. The great resemblance these 
figures bore to native men and women, and the clever 
manner in which they were carved and painted, testified 
to the wonderful artistic faculties of this so-called savage 
people. At the feet of these statues were mugs, plates, 
and specimens of native crockery. All these articles were 
slightly broken, either to disable them for future use, and 
thus prevent temptation to rob the sanctuary, or, as seems 
more probable, with an idea that a broken plate or vessel 
" dies,'* and so goes appropriately to the land of the 
spirits.* 

About noon on the third day of our journeying we 
came to the banks of the Inkisi, and had to cross that 
swift, rolling, turbid stream in native canoes. The natives 
always land much lower down the river than where they 
embark, for the current is so swift that it is impossible 
to entirely withstand its influence. It is here about as 
broad as the Thames at Windsor, and probably rises in 
the mountains eastward of Sao Salvador. For navigation 
it is quite useless, owing to its furious current and many 
falls; on the further side of the Inkisi, the woods are 
beautiful, and the path winds through enchanting scenery, 
over little brooks where green mossy rocks stem the im- 
patient, foaming little streams, and under the grandly 
over-arching trees, festooned with mazy creepers and 

* See cbap. xvi. 



114 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

beneath whose shade the humid soil is covered with a 
carpet of ferns. On the little sandy shore of one brooklet 
where the restrained water, quitting its barrier of velvety- 
green stones, whose severity is tempered by the tenderest 
covering of moss, spreads itself out with pride to twice 
its previous width, on the crisp white sand were deeply 
imprinted the footmarks of a leopard. Perhaps but a 
few minutes before he had come there to slake his thirst ; 
he had stolen from his lair amid the dense brushwood to 
this quiet bay of the brook, where he stood in soft grey- 
green shade lapping the stream near where it fell in white 
streaks over the moss-carpeted stones. Long sprays of 
maidenhair tickled his forehead, great knotted lianas 
bumped against him as the slight breeze swayed these 
vegetable ropes backwards and forwards. JAiilQ'poeocejphalus 
parrots mocked at him, and yellow-vented fly-catchers 
shrieked out his crimes; still he laps on with greedy 
thirst, soothed by the soft-whispering shade of trees and 
ferns in which he stands, with a background of intensely 
vivid sunlit verdure, where the forest breaks open to the 
sky. But the distant sound of men's voices has disturbed 
him, and as they push their noisy way along the woodland 
path, crunching the dead twigs under foot and swishing 
back the pendent boughs, he softly slinks away into the 
untracked solitudes of dead sombre green, and leaves but 
the trace of his footsteps on the sandy shore of the little 
brook to attest his recent presence. 

Again the forest lies behind us, and we toil up the hill 
path as the sun is sinking, and enter a fine large village, 
some five hours* march beyond the Inkisi river. Here you 
get a good idea of Central African life. There is a general 
aspect of tidy prosperity, and the people are unusually 
sportive and merry amongst themselves. I even witnessed 
what is rarely seen amongst these races — amorous toying 
and loving caresses between a fine stalwart husband and 
his plump little wife. Children, pretty little children, 
were playing together and making dirt pies, one child 
looking on and carrying a baby as big as itself. One 
infant had the whooping cough, and another was playing 



MANYANGA TO LJ^OPOLDVILLE {STANLEY POOL). 115 

with a beautifully made rattle. A hen and chickens, 
with that steadfast obstinacy that is so characteristic of 
fowls, would insist on retiring for the night in the house 
which had been assigned me as my lodging; so two 
capable little boys caught the ten chickens tenderly and 
conveyed them to a place of safety, the old hen naturally 
clucking and protesting behind. An immense quantity 
of pumpkins, with the ripe fruit and the great yellow 
blossom growing on the same plant, and the waving fields 
of manioc which I saw in the bright morning light, lent 
an air of prosperity and plenty to the tidy groups of 
houses. In this village, in front of many of the habitations, 
lay huge logs of wood, roughly trimmed tree-trunks. At 
one end they exhibited but little handling from the 
operator, but at the other they terminated in a rudely 
carved and painted head, executed with little finish indeed, 
yet the few strokes that wrought the semblance to humanity 
had been given with a certain decision and skill. There 
was, in fact, a good deal of character and expression in 
this sketched-out face, which, besides, bore much resem- 
blance to the prevailing type of man in that neighbour- 
hood. Whether these logs, of which many were lying 
prone before the cottage doors, were '• liouse-idols" in 
disgrace, or merely ornamental settles, I could not as- 
certain ; but when I mentioned the word for ** idol " and 
pointed towards them, the men and women gathered round 
and laughed contemptuously. I might mention that the 
natives here call themselves "Wa-mbuno." The plural 
prefix " wa " again replaces the more classical " ba." 

Beyond this village all was magnificent, grandiose 
forest. The path goes down, down, down into its depths, 
and the tree-tops shut out the sky. The long straight 
lianas, like plumb-lines and scaffolding depending from the 
branches, sketch out a sort of fantastic architecture. 
Large white jasmine flowers shine out like stars in the 
gloomy depths of foliage, and down at the bottom of the 
deep ravine a brown stream catches a few glints of green 
light as it hurries along. 

On the evening of the fourth day, after lea.\m^ t^Jy^Svi^ 



IIG A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

we stopped at the village of Ngoma.* Here an old 
fetish-man and some young disciples were performing a 
sort of dance, in which they hopped about like frogs, 
squatted on their heels, and waved their hands downwards 
from the heavens. I was told they were calling down 
the rain — surely a most superfluous appeal to the clerk of 
the weather, who took care to souse us every day. Other 
of the inhabitants, more indolent, or conscious of the 
inutility of supplicating Providence, were reclining in 
different postures in lazy ease, having their hair dressed 
by women. 

From Ngoma it was a trying march of fifteen miles to 
Leopoldville, and as I was suffering badly from an ulcer 
on the ankle, the road seemed doubly long ; and when at 
length I limped into the station, I was in need of the kind 
reception accorded me. A late breakfast was soon got 
ready, and they gave me a splendid cucumber grown in 
the station garden. 

You do not get a glimpse of Stanley Pool until you are 
quite close to Leopoldville, and it is then, on turning 
round the hill-side, that the magnificent prospect of it 
bursts upon your view. 

Leopoldville, like most of Mr. Stanley's stations, is 
placed on rising ground,t but it does not occupy for its 
site the exact summit of the hill, being built on what may 
be called a semicircular ledge round the slope which faces 
the expanding Pool. 

The principal edifice of the station is a large two-storied 
house made of wood, bricks, and a sort of mud plaster. 
The roof is of thatch, for the sake of coolness, and all the 
framework of the house is composed of huge beams of 
wood, apparently of great strength, but really a source of 
weakness, as the wood is being constantly eaten through 
by the white ants and other insect pests, so that frequently 
a beam gives way, and is renewed only just in time to 
save the structure. This house contains a larsre dining- 

* Ngoma means " drum J* It is a word often applied to a sounding 
fall of water. 
f And is very unhealthy in consequence.-^H. H. J. 



MAN YANG A TO LEOPOLDVILLE (STANLEY FOOL). 117 

room, a store, and three bed-rooms on the ground-floor ; 
and on the first story a long, low-pitched chamber, which 
is generally Mr. Stanley's private sitting-room when he 
comes to Leopoldville. In his absence, it is occupied by 
the chief of the station. Behind the house, and apart from 
it, are the kitchens and domestic offices, and in front 
spreads a fine open porch, as I may call it, for want of a 
better word, which is really a large open apartment, in 
addition to the dining-room, projecting on to the espla- 
nade, and forming a delightfully airy spot in which to sit 
during the daytime. In a row with this big house are 
two other buildings. One has a series of apartments for 
the white men, and the other a large supplementary store. 
Both above and below these European dwellings are many 
little houses for the Zanzibaris, and the natives attached 
to the station. Beneath the esplanade, which runs along 
the front of the " white " part of Leopoldville, and leading 
down towards the port, the Zanzibaris' houses make quite 
a neat and orderly looking town, each cottage having it*? 
garden and enclosure round it. The esplanade, which I 
have already mentioned, is really a flat terrace cut arti- 
ficially in the slope of the hill, and is in continuation with 
the road arising from the interior. From this promenade 
views of great beauty may be obtained over the distant 
Pool and the neighbouring forest, and in the cool evening- 
time it forms a pleasant walk to stroll on whilst waiting 
for dinner. Here, too, in the early moining, the chief of 
the station passes all the Zanzibaris in review. 

A quarter of a mile away, on the top of the hill, is the 
little Baptist Mission, which enjoys, perhaps, the finest 
situation of any building in Leopoldville, the view from 
its verandah embracing almost the whole extent of Stanley 
Pool. The Baptist missionaries have, besides, a large 
garden down near the banks of the Congo, and they rent 
altogether from the Expedition about two-and-a-half acres 
of land, paying for it the merely nominal sum of £10 per 
annum. 

Above, below, and around the station are extensive 
gardens, banana groves, and plantations of manioc. They 



118 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

already begiu to furuish no inconsiderable amount of food 
both to the black and the white inhabitants of Leopoldville, 
and of course in future, together with the stock-breeding 
establishments for goats, fowls, sheep, pigs, ducks, and 
pigeons, ought to completely nourish the station and its 
normal number of residents, so that only what may be 
termed "luxuries" need be introduced from Europe. 
There is no reason why many even of tliese should not be 
produced and prepared on the spot. The sugar-cane, for 
instance, is largely grown by the natives, and its pulp 
may in the simplest, most elementary way be boiled and 
strained down into a thick toflfee-like sugar, quite suitable 
for all ordinary sweetening purposes without further refine- 
ment Then, as we know, coffee is indigenous to most 
parts of tropical Africa, and if it does not actually grow 
wild on the Congo, it would certainly yield on these 
fertile slopes around the Pool the finest results under 
cultivation. 

It is the food question that is the real diflBculty of 
Congo exploration. Though the soil is richly productive, 
the natives grow only just enough to live upon in plenty 
themselves, but are not equal to a sudden drain on their 
resources. Mr. Stanley, has long since understood the 
necessity of making his Expedition self-supporting, both 
from the expense and difl&culty of importing preserved 
provisions from Europe, and from the inability of the 
natives to adequately supply anything like the. amount of 
food which is daily needed for the nourishment of each 
station. Consequently, almost before he built houses, he 
laid out gardetis, he planted bananas, and commenced the 
cultivation of manioc, and whenever he made an inspec- 
tion of a newly-founded station or revisited an old one, 
his first care was the local husbandry. 

Leopoldville boasts of a convenient little harbour in 
front of the station, protected by a spit of woodland which 
projects into the Congo. Here all the falls are over, or, 
rather, following the course of the stream, have not yet 
begun — the first takes place close to Leopoldville, a little 
hehind the station — so that navigation from this port is 



XANYAlfOA TO itOPOLDVILLE {STANLEY POOL). 119 

open and unchecked for nearly a thousand milea eastward 
np the Congo In fact Wopoldville situated at the 
weatem entrance to Stanley Pool is destined to be the 
great Empire city of Central Africa. From ita shores 
there are according to Stanley s calculations 4 520 miles 
of free navigation north and south and east into the 
heart of Africa. It will one day be the terminus ot a 




OF L^OPOUlVILLb 



railway from the coast and the starting point of a river 
journey half across Afnca The ivory copper ind iron, 
the spices the vax and the gums of the interior will meet 
in its mirt the costumes of London ind Paris and products 
of the manufactories of the old world. Or, in another 
sense, the raw material which is poured into LeopoldviUe 
from the interior will return to it from the exterior in 



120 A JOURNEY UP THE ttlVEtt COmO. 

other forms. Its sugar will come back in the daintier 
shape of Parisian bonbons, its india-rubber will be reim- 
ported as highly necessary goloshes and waterproofs. 
Congo spices wUl be mingled in English and American 
sauces, and over the counters of its toilet shops the 
merchant enriched in the ivory trade will purchase ivory- 
handled brushes which are made in England from the 
tusks that his firm has exported. Who knows, even, that 
the only note-paper in use amongst the fashionable world 
of Leopoldville may not some day be manufactured from 
the very papyrus which so thickly grows around the 
woody islands and the reedy shores of Stanley Pool ? 



( 121 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

STANLEY POOL. 

Scenery of the Pool — Dover Cliffs — Brazzaville — Kallina 
Point — Death of Lieutenant Kallina — The Chiefs round 
Stanley Pool — Ngaliema — Boat Voyage to Bolobo — A Kin- 
8HA8HA Village — A Conversazione — Hyphcene Palms — 
Smoked Fish — An African Rain-storm — Importance of 
Diet — Hippopotami — Grey Parrots — Kimpoko — A Climbing 
Palm. 

Stanley Pool is a great expansion of the Congo, about 
twenty-five miles long and sixteen broad. There are 
seventeen islands of some note, the largest of them being 
thirteen miles in length. Many sand-banks strew the 
waters of the Pool, alternately covered and uncovered, 
according to the season of the year, and there are also 
floating reed and papyrus islands, formed of these masses 
of aquatic vegetation, which are so strongly interknitted 
by their fibres and roots that a man can stand on them. 
These floating islets are occasionally of some extent, and 
may be taken for real islands until their motion with the 
current is observed. "White egrets and many waterbirds 
frequent them, and the hippopotami play round their 
reedy shores. The large islands* are resorted to by 
elephants and buffaloes, which creatures swim backwards 
and forwards from the mainland with ease. Innumerable 
waterbirds, storks, pelicans, cormorants, herons, egrets, 
sacred ibises, spur-winged and Egyptian geese, terns and 

* These vary in size and number according to the season. In the 
rainy months they are subdivided into two or three each, with shallow 
channels between. In the dry season the number of islands is much 
diminished by the retreating waters. 




TBB (Mamiu PAiM IS Daeeaxxi fittaw \ vtxo. tvaa. 



STANLEY POOL. 



123 



plovers, frequent the thick tangles of high grass and the 
many sand-banks, wheie they form strange groups with 
the crocodiles, who are wont to he basking in the sun in 
a state of senii conscious beatitude 

The Pool forms, as it were, a gieat cup-like basin, with 
an incomplete rim formed by sierras of peaked and 
picturesque mountams, ranging on the southern side from 
1,000 feet to 3,000 feet in height The banks of this 
great expanse of water offer considerable variety id 
character At the northern, or north-eastern end, where 
the Upper Congo enters it through a somewhat narrow 




BTAKLBI rOOL. 



passage, the scenery is very beautiful. High woods rise 
so steeply above the water tliat, as you sail beneath their 
shade, they seem to mount indefinitely towards the sky. 
It is a wall of forest. Then, almost opposite, following 
the northern bank, are the " Dover Cliffs," ■ their scarped 
sides white and glistening, and their crowns being covered 
with soft green grass. They more resemble, however, the 
scenery round Lyme Eegis, in Dorset and Devon, than the 
harsher and more ru^ed cliffs of Dover. Then on both 
* Their geological formation is awhile, sandy, somewhat crumbling 
soil, not chalk. 



■124 A JOURNEY UP THE StVER CONGO. 

aides of the Pool, the shores dwindle down into flat 
forest land, the encircling girdle of mountains trending 
oflf towards the interior, and when you reach Mfwa or 
" Brazzaville," the coast is low and nearly on a level with 
the water. It is here that De Brazza claims to have 
secured a cession of territory to the French Eepuhlic, nine 
miles in length. As you may see by the illustration, 
" Brazzaville " consists of a very few native huts, lialf 
buried in bananas, and backed by thick forest.* On the- 
left hand side, facing the Pool, there is a small creek, 
which might be developed into a tiny harbour, and there 
is a fine and fertile island, as yet uninhabited, save by 




chance fishermen, which might be successfully developed 
by the French ; but save these two advantages, not rare 
anywhere in Stanley Pool, it is difficult to discover any 
favourable point in this situation, or even to avoid the 
conclusion that it is a badly chosen site for a station. 
About this low-lying part of the Pool, ague is prevalent, 
and in the rainy season I should say Mfwa would become 
a rheumatic swamp. Had De Brazza fixed his intended 
station anywhere on the high and breezy " Dover Cliffs," 
he would have done well, and, remember, the whole basin 
of the Pool was open to him when he first arrived, for he 

• No doubt very much changf d now. — H. H. J. 



STANLEY POOL. 125 

reached it long before Mr. Stanley had been able to 
transport his goods and his men thither to found a station, 
so that the Franco-Italian, as it were, had the first choice 
of a site. I can only suppose that, in spite of the affection 
the natives bore him, they did not place much ground at 
his disposal, and that De Brazza fixed on Mfwa because 
he could not get anything better. He may also have 
looked across at Kallina Point, and hoped to secure that 
some day, and then be able to shut up the mouth of the 
Pool if necessary. This promontory is a red cliff, rising 
abruptly some fifty feet from the water, nearly opposite 
Mfwa, on the southern bank of the expanding river. 
Kallina Point might from its commanding situation be 
called the Gibraltar of the Pool, as from its easily fortified 
summit artillery could sweep the narrowing end of this 
lake and render the further descent of its waters by an 
enemy well-nigh impossible. Of course in conjunction 
with " Brazzaville," its possession by a hostile party could 
completely interrupt water communication between Leo- 
poldville and the upper river. 

A fearful current races round this cliff, difficult to stem 
even in a steamer, but really dangerous for native canoes 
going against the stream. Here, in December, 1882, 
Lieut. Kallina, an Austrian member of the Expedition, 
was drowned. He would insist on ascending the Congo 
in a small native canoe, being too impatient to explore the 
mysteries of the unknown to wait for the departure of the 
monthly boat which revictuals the stations of the upper 
river. As he was a very tall man, and for some reason 
chose to seat himself on a large chest in the stern, he 
rendered the balance of the canoe very unstable. The 
little craft was badly steered, met the rush of the current 
broadside as it whirled round this point, and was instantly 
capsized. Lieutenant Kallina was drowned, and his name 
has since been given to this redoubtable headland. 

The people inhabiting the shores of Stanley Pool belong 
to the Ba-teke race, but they would seem to be compara- 
tively recent arrivals, and to have dispossessed the older 
inhabitants and driven them into the interior or ab«»csi:\i<^<ik. 



126 A J0UBNE7 UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

them as slaves. Where the Ba-teke have settled, on the 
south or eastern bank of the Congo, they form merely 
riverine colonies, and never extend their settlements many 
miles from its banks. 

The principal chiefs round the Pool are Bab Njali, who 
rules over Mfwa and the lower course of the impetuous 
Jue river ; Ngaliema, the chief of Ntamo and the territory 
round Leopold ville ; three more important chiefs at or 
near Kinshasha, of whom one, Bankwa, is very averse to 
Europeans ; and finally there is a great chief, fortunately 
of another way of tliinking, at Kimpoko, where the 
Expedition possesses a flourishing station. Ngaliema is 
the chief with whom Mr. Stanley has come most into 
contact, for Leopoldville is built on land bought from him, 
and he is the nearest, and not the most agreeable neighbour 
of the station. At first he tried to act the bully, until he 
saw how inadequate his strength of one hundred and fifty 
guns would prove in any attack on Leopoldville. Now 
he is by turns a whining suppliant, a sulky neighbour, or 
a crafty intriguer. He is a man of rather strong character 
and decided will, having raised himself from the position 
of a mere slave to that of a powerful chief of slaves. This 
town of Ntamo or Kintamo (the prefix Ki rather implies 
*' district "), was founded and colonized by him, and he has 
since enriched himself immensely by ivory trading. 
Nearly all the ivory brought down by the Ba-yansi traders 
from the Equator (whence they receive it from the 
Ba-ngala, who in their turn get it from some still more 
remote tribe) comes to his market, and passes through his 
hands to Lutete and Sao Salvador. 

I left Leopoldville, towards the end of February,* in a 
large lighter or whale-boat, rowed by a sturdy crew of Zan- 
zibaris, to ascend the Congo as far as Bolobo, a large native 
village about 220 miles beyond Stanley Pool, where the 
last station of the Ex{)edition had recently been founded. 

Our departure, as usual, was signalised by a downpour 
of rain that was almost exceptional in its force and dura- 

* The height of the rainy season. 



STANLEY POOL. 127 

tion, and which quickly showed me how ill-prepared we 
were for the exigencies of a tropical rainy season. In a 
larore open boat, with absolutely no shelter but a hastily- 
slung sail which merely received pools of rain-water in its 
bosom to launch them on our heads when the violent wind 
gave it a twist; with no place of dry stowage for the 
luggage which just lay about in the bottom of the boat, or 
if floatable, floated here and there in the rain-water that 
in spite of the men's efforts of constant baling, lay often 
6 inches deep in the middle of the lighter ; circumstanced 
thus we had no course when it rained, but to stop rowing, 
run the boat aground, and seek for some temporary refuge 
wherein we and such of the cargo as was likely to spoil by 
constant soaking could await in shelter the return of fine 
weather. In this instance, we had scarcely rounded 
Kallina Point when the torrential rain forced us to make 
for the southern shore of the Pool, where the villages of 
Kinshasha were situated. The Zanzibaris, knowing well the 
indications of the weather, and foreseeing an entire day of 
rain, wished me to descend here, and seek refuge in a native 
hut, but miserable as I felt, with the rain streaming down 
my mackintosh, and my feet an inch deep in water, I 
hesitated, for here, only a few days before, the chief of 
Leopoldville, come on a friendly mission and camped out 
in the village, had been obliged to leave in the middle of the 
night, turned out by hostile natives who regarded the arrival 
of any white man in their district with irritable suspicion. 
Would they greet me any better, much less afford me a refuge 
from the rain ? I asked myself, and supposing they not only 
refused us hospitality, but even ventured to rob and attack 
us, should we be in a position to resist ? However, my 
scruples soon ended. The prospect of quietly soaking 
all day and getting rheumatic fever, or else returning 
humiliated to Leopoldville, was more disagreeable than 
adventuring myself amongst the capricious natives, who 
perhaps themselves might be depressed and softened by 
the weather. So I left the boat, took a few necessary 
articles of luggage, and walked up through the long wet 
grass to the ^^age, where to my pleased s>vv:^^\>S!Ri 



■%f. 



128 A JOURNEY UF THE RIVER CONGO. 

the natives received us most hospitably, and at once 
invited me into- an inhabited hut, where I could remain and 
dry myself until an unoccupied dwelling could be found 
and placed at my disposal. The other inmates of the house, 
excepting the many and constant visitors, were a middle- 
aged man, with his hair en chignon^ his wife, suckling 
a baby, whose forehead was ornamented with a band of 
scarlet pigment, and an old man, who might have been a 
poor broken-down uncle of the family. 

After the drenching rain and sodden dampness outside, 
the dry warmth of this interior was a most pleasant 
contrast, and I sat down on a large raised bed of matting 
with a sense of comfort and resignation. There was a 
wood fire in the centre of the floor which served to dry my 
clothes, but the smoke coming from the burning wood 
made my eyes smart considerably. Seeing this, the woman 
removed the burning brands and only left the clear bright 
ashes on the hearth. The house was clean and tidy, and 
round the walls were ranged many neatly made articles. 
There were long pipes with little bowls, a clarionet, a 
white mug (these last presents from " Mputo "), a musical 
instrument like a guitar, but with five strings, a collection 
of skilfully made little pouches, containing I know not 
what, hippopotamus harpoons, fishing nets, horns, and a 
multitude of odds and ends, only to be classed under that 
convenient term et cetera, 

I opened my case of provisions, laid the cloth on the bed, 
and sat down with considerable appetite to a frugal repast. 
The sight of the tinned condiments excited a considerable 
amount of half-fearsome interest on the part of such 
natives as watched my proceedings. They tapped their 
mouths with their fingers — a favourite mode of expressing 
surprise — when they saw Faraji cut with a " tin-opener " 
into what they imagined a solid block of steel, and pro- 
duce little fish (sardines) floating in oil. But when I 
offered them some to taste they withdrew affrighted. It 
was *' Nkisi " magic, white man's food — poison, and some 
of them were so alarmed at my proffering part of my 
lunch that they hurriedly left the hut. But curiosity soon 



STANLEY FOOL 129 

Called them back, and visitors were continually flocking in. 
Many children, some of them pretty little things, had 
made friends with me, and were wonder-stricken at my 
ticking watch, which they fully believe to be a little 
animal imprisoned in a cage. Then to this paradise of 
rest and calm came the tempter, a wicked old gentleman 
with a wife and two marriageable daughters. He was 
most anxious I should become his son-in-law, " moyennant " 
several " longs " of cloth. Seeing my hesitation, he mis- 
took it for scorn, and hastened to point out the manifold 
charms of his girls, whilst these damsels waxed hotly 
indignant at my coldness. Then another inspiration seized 
their father — perhaps I liked a maturer style of beauty, 
and his wife, by no means an uncomely person, was 
dragged forward while her husband explained with the 
most expressive gestures, putting his outspread hand 
before his eyes and affecting to look another way, that, 
again with the simple intermediary of a little cloth, lie 
would remain perfectly unconscious of whatever amatory 
passages might occur between us. However, I evaded 
these embarrassing proposals as delicately as possible, and 
hinted with many smiles and " Mbotes," that were I other- 
wise circumstanced an alliance with one of the first 
families of Kinshasha might have been within my means. 
As it was, the honour seemed too costly. However, we 
parted excellent friends, and the elder lady, with the 
practical-mindedness of mature affection, presented me 
with a fine large fish, which came in very handily for my 
dinner, whilst her younger companions brought such 
girlish offerings as eggs, corn-cobs and bananas. I, in my 
turn, presented them with gaudy handkerchiefs, and 
general satisfaction reigned. 

Seeing that the hopeless downpour would never cease, I 
made arrangements for the loan of a house to pass the 
night in, and one was soon found — dry, clean, and spacious, 
in which I and my impedimenta were quickly established. 
It was then proposed — evidently by the village notables 
— that an evening conversazione should be held in my 
apartment, and the . proposal was carried unanimously 



130 A JOURNEY UJP THE RIVER CONGO. 

Consequently, to my secret annoyance, an ever-increasing 
number of able-bodied people pressed into the little house, 
the men gravely seating themselves on the floor, each 
with his long pipe, quite prepared to spend a cheerful 
evening, and the women, as became their inferior position 
in society, standing about the doorway, and effectually 
blocking up all ventilation. A resolution was forthwith 
carried and presented to me by one who appeared to be 
the chairman, that my watch should be again exhibited to 
the ladies and gentlemen assembled. Sorry as I was to 
disappoint these harmless souls, I felt an effort must be 
made to secure a little quiet and repose, especially as my 
dinner was nearly ready ; so I managed to convey to 
them the idea that the white man was tired, hungry, and 
wished to be alone. The men then rose most courteously 
and quietly, shook hands witli me, each one in turn, and 
with many " Mbotes " left the house, pushing the pro- 
testing women before them, so I was practically once more 
in the solitude I loved. I took off my wet boots, made 
myself comfortable, and turned witli pleasure to the dinner 
and tlie novel that Faraji had just placed on a large chest 
which served me as a table. The mosquitoes liere, 
however, were very abundant, but trumpeted despairingly 
round my mosquito-curtain. As the viUage sank to rest, 
the weird noises from the river rose into prominence, with 
the grunting of hippopotami and the cries of night-birds. 

The next morning I left my Kinshasha Mends, and 
again pursued my journey across the wide waters of the 
Pool, which now began to open into all its magnificent 
breadth. On many islands the Hyphoene * palms were 
growing, apparently a different species from the Hyphoene 
Guineenm of the coast and the lower reaches of the Congo. 
This Hyphoene was a most beautiful and majestic palm, 
from thirty to sixty feet in height, with broad fan-shaped 
fronds of glaucous green, and clusters of bright orange 
fruit. Just below the crown of leaves there is a curious 
swelling or bulging of the stem, a not uncommon charac- 

* Hi/jfhcene vintricjsa (Kirk)? 



STANLEY POOL, 131 

teristic of Borrassine or Hyphteiioid palms, and which adds 
strangely to the grace of tiie pillar-like stem. 

The vegetation wliich clothes the shores of these islands 
is rich and pleasing in colour. It is hrightened by masses 
of yellow cucurbit flowera, lilac-coloured papilionacere and 
mauve convolvulL Beautiful scarlet seed-vessels of a 
Cneslis form blazing clusters of gorgeous effect amid the 
tender green foliage. Immense numbers of gi-ey parrots, 
small flocks of them going together, flutter and play about 




the tops of the tall trees, whistling and screaming joyously 
all the time, while on the many ana^s that rear their 
withered branches above the waterside, numerous little 
birds have for safety's sake hung their pendent nests of 
grass, and there is thus a constant twittering and fluttering 
of dainty forms round the gnarled old trunks and whitened 
twigs. 

At one of the many islands, we stopped to eat some 
breakfast. The remainder of the fish presented to me by 
the lady of Kinshasha was re-cooked in a stew iiU^i. ?»■»«. 



132 A JOURNEY tJP ttEB RtVER COMO, 

sweet potatoes and manioc and turned out delicious. 
Whilst this was being done by Mafta, I endeavoured to 
make the tour of the island, but as more than half of it 
was marsh, this was hardly practicable. Everywhere the 
soft soil was imprinted by the hoof-marks of the hippo- 
potami who at present were occupied with their mid-day 
bath. Their loud grunting might be distinctly heard, and 
as we sat in the boat eating our breakfast, many an un- 
couth head was raised with a snort and a jet of spray to 
regard our proceedings. There was little of note to see in 
this particular island. The hippopotami and the circling 
kites had it pretty well to themselves. There were, how- 
ever, some fine groves of the large and handsome papilion- 
aceous tree, a species of Baphia, (which I have already 
mentioned and illustrated in Chapter V.,) and the strong 
fragrant scent from their white blossoms made the whole 
island fragrant. In front of us, on a sand-bank, some 
natives were smoking their freshly caught fish over a wood 
fire, preparatory to disposing of them in the markets of 
the Ba-teke. In all probability these men were Ba-yansi, 
for this tribe does an immense trade in smoked fish 
between the Equator and Stanley Pool. As they descend 
the river with ivory and otlier articles of trade, they spend 
much time fishing on their way, and frequently stop at a 
sand-bank or island to smoke what they have captured. 
The fish thus treated last a long time in good condition, 
and are in some request amongst all the riverine natives 
as an article of food. 

I have sometimes found them excellent — I might almost 
say delicious — white of flesh and flaky, with few bones, 
and retaining from the smoking process a faint but very 
pleasant flavour. On the other hand, at times the natives 
have palmed off on me some that were evidently stale, for 
on breaking them open, they were a mass of wriggling 
worms within. 

Hitherto, throughout this morning, tlie day had been 
glorious, and all the time I sat at breakfast, watching the 
hippopotami and the fishermen, the sky was radiantly 
blue, blue as it only is during the rainy season in Africa, 



STANLEY POOL. 138 

for in the rainless months the sky is mostly covered with 
a whitish haze ; but now, distant mutterings of thunder 
were heard from time to time, and threatening clouds 
began to shadow the broad face of the still Pool, which 
erewhile reflected nothing but unsullied azure. Then rose 
suddenly a fearful inky black masps, rendered more weird 
by two flecks of pallid white cloud that seemed the eyes 
of the storm-fiend. Vivid zigzags of pink lightning played 
over the still water, and the thunder rumbled and tumbled 
as if they were moving colossal furniture in heaven. Yet 
the storm did not immediately burst on us, but rather 
crept round and round the horizon, as if playing with its 
victims. At one time I had lost all fear of it, thinking it 
seemed quite resolved to go off to the west; when, 
suddenly, a puff of wind sprang up in the opposite 
direction to the prevailing breeze, and in two or three 
minutes the cruel clouds were swept upon us, and a deluge 
of rain was hissing down. Useless to put up a sail shelter, 
the scornful wind whipped it off, and we could only sit 
patiently and soak. 

This is the dreary part of an African rain-storm. The 
first beginning of the tempest is most awe-striking and 
impressive. One is half inclined to think that some great 
natural catastrophe, some appalling conflict of physical 
forces is at hand. The purple-black clouds that rise in 
fantastic masses, which an imaginative eye could resolve 
into unearthly beings overshadowing the earth and its 
frightened children; the dazzling snowy-white of their 
colossal heads rising up into the blue zenith and accen- 
tuating the inky darkness round the horizon ; the jagged 
lightning, the first skirmishing attack of the storm, and 
the sudden bursts of roaring, deafening thunder — all this 
is grand and imposing, and fascinates the attention while 
it lasts. This is the " stagey " part of a tropical storm, 
and one which scarcely any book treating of the tropics 
fails to describe. But what does not seem to be equally 
noticed after the wonderful effects of thunder and light- 
ning have had their due description, is the dreary 
persistent downpour which ensues^ when the ak^ bQ,c,Q.\s\<^'?!^ 



134 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

a uniform drab and the rain descends for hours, not in 
" bucketsful," nor in " sheets/' nor in any interesting or 
exceptional manner, but in a steady soaking drizzle with 
little hope of intermission. I have frequently known it 
to rain for twelve hours at a stretch in Tropical Africa, 
and on this particular occasion the rain lasted continuously 
for an even longer space of time. 

We repaired to a sandy island, landed, and erected the 
tent. Never had I felt more miserable in Africa. It took 
an hour before the wet wood could be coaxed into a blaze ; 
and as the gloom of evening fell, with its dark mists and 
dismal obscurity, bands of hellish mosquitoes, worthy 
subjects of Beelzebub, king of the flies, swarmed round us, 
rendering it impossible to keep oneself in immobility. 
The poor Zanzibaris went stamping about on the sand and 
swearing in a meek way. As for me, I hastily swallowed 
some soup and a timely nip of brandy, and sought refuge 
in bed beneath my mosquito-curtains. Here, amid damp 
rngs and clammy coverings, I passed a miserable night, 
fighting the hosts of mosquitoes that managed somehow to 
penetrate my muslin " moustiquaire." 

The next morning I arose, feverish and ill. After a 
little hot soup, however, and some coffee, I began to feel 
better and to forget the dismal impressions of yesterday. 
And here I would pause to recommend to all intending 
African travellers the desirability of taking nourishment 
as soon after rising in the morning as possible. It is an 
excellent plan to save some of the soup or bouillon of the 
night before, and have it heated in the early morning, and 
drink it before leaving the tent. So much ill-health is 
incurred in Africa by carelessness as to nourishment, and 
by what is still more idiotic, an idea that it is more heroic 
to conduct yourself like a martyr, undergo long periods of 
fasting, and generally pay little attention to how much 
or how often you eat and drink. On the contrary, the 
whole question of success in Africa depends on regularly 
and amply nourishing the body with as good food as can 
be got. Let nothing, if you can help it, interfere with 
^our meQl8 : eat >vhengver you are hungry ^nd abstain 



STANLEY POOL. 135 

when you are not. Moreover, do not forget that in Africa 
a cosy cup of tea or coffee and a little light refreshment 
often comes in most opportunely and soothingly in moments 
of despondency and trouble, and that it "keeps people 
up " somewhat as proverbial cake and wine was supposed 
to do before a funeral. 

As we left our sand-bank camp of the night before, the 
sun shone in but a half-hearted manner and more rain fell, 
but I was expecting momentarily to arrive at the newly 
founded station of Kimpoko, near the north-western end 
of Stanley Pool, where, at least, we should find rest and 
shelter for an hour or two. We saw many bands of 
hippopotami this morning, nine or ten generally going 
together. They approached the boat with a boldness and 
confidence which showed they had been little shot at by 
white men. However, the natives here hunt them assidu- 
ously with the harpoon. Indeed, in one creek, where 
the hippopotami were indulging in their uncouthest 
gambols, we ourselves saw a group of men some twenty 
yards from their prey, actively preparing for the chase. 
The tameness of these huge beasts is wonderful ; one could 
almost fancy oneself in the enclosure of some vaster 
Zoological Garden : and when they opened their huge 
mouths, from time to time, displaying their glistening tusks, 
I sought involuntarily for tlie bun of my childhood to 
deftly throw into the pink chasm that yawned before me. 

Flocks of grey parrots* flew across the sky, alternately 
screeching and whistling melodiously. I have seen it 
stated eiToneously that the grey parrot never whistles in 
a wild state ; on the contrary, it does so very sweetly and 
with a great variety of note. 

The newly-appointed agent at Kimpoko had seen us 

* These birds are fouod in incredible quantities on Stanley Pool. 
If Cross or Jamrach established themselves here, paiTots would soon 
he advertised in England at half-a-crown a-piece. I earnestly hope 
they may not, and that tlie Expedition, in acquiring such control over 
these territories, will extend to the wild things of nature the same 
protection from rapine as they promise to the indigenous men and 
womei). . 



13G 



A JOURNEY UP THE lilVEH CONGO. 



coming from afar and had prepared a welcome breakfast; 
Undemeath a roughly-made awning, in the middle of a 
grove of Hyphoene palms with a circle of natives eagerly 
watching oht strange doings we sat down to a meal which 
proudly exhibited the lesources of the Kimpoko com- 
missariat, lirst of all as i pick-mc-up, a good glass of 
mahfii mide from the sugar cane ; then fried fish not 
uiilikp grey mullet a '3i)leiidid eel with creamy flesh and 
a ^e^y dilicious fluour theu various meats skilfuUy 
cooked witli native aauues followed by a banana pudding 
and pine-apples. This was 
not a meal to be grumbled at 
anywhere, and many a similar 
one may be enjoyed in Africa 
if the traveller cares to forage 
for its component parts. How 
many people residing on the 
Congo take tlie trouble to 
fish for themselves ? And 
yet what sport they might 
have ! No, they languidly 
diwdle about tlieir verandalis 
and leave it to native enter- 
pnse to occasionally provide 
them with a fish course to 
their dinner. And if no 
natives come, then they are 
content to live perpetually 
on tinned provisions, a most 
costly form of nourishment and one that is only ex- 
cusable in barren places like Kinsembo, where hardly 
any native food is to be got and where there is no 
intenor transport to be paid for. The people of Kim- 
poko that surrounded us during our meal were good- 
humoured and w(,ll behaved They had a great variety 
of modes in dressing their hair which is certainly much 
longer and more abundant than in the coast races. The 
chief of Kimpoko paid us a visit after breakfast. He 
seemed a very gloomy, sulky person, and, I believe, was 




I INHABITANT O 



STANLEY POOL. 



137 



rather offended at my many queationa through the inter- 
preter, and my constant habit of sketching the attendant 
wives who were with him. It is sacrilege, seemingly, to 
see the king drink, so before satisfying liis thirst he 
shrouds his face in his mantle, gives a few quiet gulps 
behind it, and returns the glass empty as if he liad been 
performing a conjuring trick. The chief seemed to think 
this ceremony would a little impress me, and looked out 
of the corners of his eyes to see if I was attending, but I 
felt in an irreverent mood, and let him know that I had 
frequently seen chiefs perform just 
the same precautions against sor- 
cery or poison when about to 
drink. Indeed the peculiar rites 
and observances which attend the 
act of drinking among tlie chiefs 
of certain African tribes are very 
complex and curious, as will be 
seen in a future chapter, but their 
origin is, I confess, somewhat 
obscure, and the explanations 
offered by the natives are im- 
probable and inadequate. 

As one approaches the farthei' 
— tlie northern — end of Stanley 
Pool, the scenery really becomes 
very beautiful. On the left-hand 
side is a range of bold and 
picturesque heights, their aides 

clotiied with purple ivoodland. In the middle distance 
are groups of fine and spreading trees, standing out 
well against the blue hills, in all their vivid summer 
green ; and here and there tlie always graceful fan-palm 
seems to balance itself on its slender stem above the 
water, so symmetrical in shape that it appears planted for 
artistic effect On the right hand, the narrowing stream 
is shut in by splendid hanging forests, rising to a great 
height sheer above the banks of the river, and casting their 
soQtbre reflections on its placid aurface, wKe-cft a. "«'kAsi\sxv'& 




138 A JOUSNET Ut THE SIVES CONGO. 

of ripples becomes a positive relief to the eye But as to 
relief in this stud) of purple nnd green what can be finer 
than 1 flock of enreta crossing the n\er with their fanciful 
irregular flight i Their plumi^e of perfect white which 
gains them the qualifying name of candidi^sima • their 
yellow beili.3 and their graceful forms tell out so strongly 
against the sombre forest that an eflective picture is 
formed at once 

The banks heie be^^in to be most markedly festooned 
and trellised with a curious Calamus or climbing palm the 
fronds of which are prolonged into a bare creeping stalk, 




furnished with curiously reversed hooks, so that once the 
frond falls j^ainst a branch it attaches itself securely by 
means of these recurved thorns, and thus climbs higher 
and higher, often fringing the top of the forest with grace- 
ful heads of swaying fronds which with their waving whip- 
like terminations point straight skywards as if seeking for 
greater heights to climb. The motto of this palm should 
certainly be " Excelsior," and it might also be taken as n 
vegetable type of ambition. Beginning in the lowliest form 

• I find thia ia the name of the American (pecies; it is, howevtr, 
^ii}te M applicable to Ibe egrets of Africa, 



STANLEY POOL. 139 

— the young palm looks like a broad-leaved bamboo with 
divided leaves — suggesting strongly its poorer and simpler 
relations, it soon begins to aspire, and from being first a 
ground-growing shrub, it throws out a long flexible stem 
rising far above the first humble set of fronds, and by 
means of its sharp hooks making use of every support in 
its way to climb higher and higher. Soon the leaves or 
fronds become more elegant. They split up from their 
previous bifid condition into many filaments, and at length 
the once lowly, feeble thing, by making use of everything 
that comes in its way and can give it a lift, looks proudly 
forth from the top of some giant tree, and, for a while 
content with the attainment of its ambition, has time to 
pause and throw out its flowers, which turn to bunches of 
scarlet dates. Its fruit has a thin sweetish pulp around it 
which seems harmless, at any rate to man, but I have 
never noticed any bird or beast devouring it. The colour 
of the leaves is a yellow-green, and it forms a decidedly 
bright addition to the river landscapes. The curious thing 
is that it is nowhere to be seen on the Congo between 
Stanley Pool and the coast. With the rapids it comes to 
an end, and therefore, as one of the first striking additions 
to the flora of the Congo which is met with on Stanley 
Pool, see p. 122. 

We camped out after leaving Kimpoko in a beautiful 
spot near the end of the Pool, in a forest clearing. Un- 
fortunately the mosquitoes swarmed to such a dreadful 
degree that all comfort was out of the question, and I had 
to take my meals as hastily as possible, stamping and 
swearing meanwhile at each successive bite ; and with 
reason, for whether these mosquitoes were distinctly 
venomous, or whether my impoverished blood was easily 
poisoned, either for one reason or the other every bite 
turned to an ulcer, so that my ankles and neck were in a 
few days covered with disagreeable little sores, remaining 
comparatively painless, but quite incurable until I left the 
coast of Africa. It was little use, even, on this occasion 
to seek shelter inside my mosquito-curtains, for somehow 
or other many bloocl-suckers contrived tiCi ^"vxt^\^ ^vxA "\ 



140 



A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 



passed a miserable night. The myriads of disappointed 
mosquitoes which remained outside kept up a continuous 
and sonorous humming, so irritating in its unvarying tone, 
that the occasional snorts and grunting of the hippopo- 
tami in the neighbouring grass-fields proved quite an 
i^reeable interruption. 




( 141 ) 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA lUVER. 

Native Canoes — Butterflies— Flora and Fauna of the River- 
banks — Banana-cooking — Ngui — Narrow Escape from a 
Hippopotamus — The Biuds — The Native Dogs — Lieutenant 
Janesen — MsuATA — A Bayansi Village — Native Haiudress- 
ING — Personal Decoration — A Sacred Tree— Mysterious 
Slaves. 

Some extracts from the diary kept during my fortnight's 
voyage up the river beyond Stanley Pool will perhaps 
most exactly give the impressions made on me at the 
time by the aspect of things on the Upper Congo. 

February 23rd, 1883. — I rose early, as soon as the least 
diffusion of cold light was observable, and left my bed and 
tent precipitately. The mosquitoes rendered one's toilet a 
maddening torture, and I was thankful to repair to the 
boat and eat some fried bananas tliere over a pleasant 
book. As we left the great expansion of the Pool and 
entered the narrower Congo, the forest scenery became 
extravagantly rich, and many vegetable wonders were 
displayed before our eyes. Farther on, the face of this 
wild African nature has a little changed. On the north, 
or more properly on the western, bank, the high wooded 
hills continue, but along the other side stretches Hat and 
sandy woodland, with occasional tiny rills of delicious 
water that is mucli piuierable to that of the Congo for 
drinking purposes. A little wliile before sunset, we 
suddenly see some native canoes approaching, heavily 
loaded with goods. There is now some hope of fresh food, 
and my threatened regime of tinned provisions will be 
averted. As the boat rounds a little aijit ot ^-acciji,^^ ^'^'ss^^ 




Byphome ventricma. 



STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA BIVER. 143 

Upon a considerable concourse of people, wlio welcome us 
in a moat friendly manner, with much clapping of hands 
and crying of " Mbote." Unfortunately, tliere is little to 
be had after all in the way of provisions. I buy some 
dried fish and a large jar of malafu, and am grossly cheated 




in botl for the fisl is rott i and tie milifu has been 
filled up w th m ck ind tl e refuse of tl e sugar-cane. 
Howe er tl is is ot discovered unt I after vards and we 
part on the lest of terms These people ire iJl coming 
from Eolobo a d a e br ng n„ nory to sell to N^l era.!i at 



144 A JOURNET trP THE MIVER CONGO. 

Stanley Pool. I camped out rather late this evening, and 
fortunately hit upon a very pleasant spot in which to pass 
the night — a little clearing surrounded by the forest, with 
a pellucid stream of water running on one side of it to the 
Congo. Not a mosquito was to be seen. Thank Heaven ! 
I dined comfortably and afterwards took a little walk 
along the river-shore by moonlight. The hippopotami, 
though not visible, were snorting loudly, the fishing-eagles 
were screaming at something that displeased them ; goat- 
suckers and other night-birds were uttering their plaintive 
cries, and every now and then there was the sound of 
a splash and a swish in the water as some big crocodile 
had slid off the bank, startled at the crunching of my 
footsteps on the sandy beach. 

Feb, 2Uh, — A delicious, dreamless night. Why should 
there be no mosquitoes here, and such incredible myriads 
a few miles lower down? The surroundings are apparently 
the same. The morning breaks lovely, and the day 
promises to pass without rain. We stopped about eleven 
o'clock to do some necessary washing and cooking. The 
spot chosen was a long stretch of sand, backed by thick 
forest. On the moist, smooth shore were hundreds of 
butterflies, many of most beautiful colours, azure blue and 
brilliant leaf- green. They collected in numbers round 
little patches of calcareous earth, where, in common with 
many bees, wasps, and dragon-flies, they seemed to find 
something so attractive that they never even moved at our 
approach, and one could catch them tranquilly by the 
thorax and pinch their life away before they could collect 
their airy faculties. The forest rising above the sand- 
bank was intersected with paths made by the buffaloes 
coming down to drink ; and farther towards the interior 
was an open space trampled with their footmarks, the 
whole place having a strangely farm-yard look and smell. 
In the forest were many cnestis bushes with bright scarlet 
seed-vessels, and others with orange pods, so that the 
masses of green leaves were quite enlivened by these 
points of colour. We met some canoes this afternoon 
going down to Stanley Pool, filled with ivory, but with 



STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA BWER. 145 

this exception there was no sign of man for some distance 
after leaving Kimpoko. The country, especially on the 
western bank, appears quite uninhabited,* and is a 
beautiful, uncultivated waste, with verdant slopes like 
natural meadows, clumps of shady forest and numberless 
rills of water. The vegetation overhanging the river is of 
a very rich character, and endlessly varying and ever- 
charming effects ; above all, when it is mirrored in some 
tranquil bay, where the deep green of the foliage becomes 
enhanced by a brilliant shore-line of yellow-white sand, 
and the tender grace and the fanciful forms of the many 
parasitic creepers contrast with the whitened snags and 
fallen trees which rear their gnarled limbs out of the 
placid water. On these suags are perched many water 
birds Little jewel-like kingfishers, smalt-blue and 
verditer, with scarlet beaks ; queer little bitterns, scarcely 
distinguishable by their modest grey coats and angular 
bearing from the branch on which they are posed, and an 
occasional black-and-white vulture or a sacred ibis. These 
spots offer a continual succession of little pictures with a 
never-ending natural charm, whether in diversity of com- 
position or colouring. The sun has set and night has 
fallen ere we land at a vUlage which as yet bears no name 
known to white men. It stands a little distance back 
from the river, but some natives fortunately come down 
and sell us fowls and bananas. I did not dine this 
eveniufj; until ten o'clock, but when Mafta at length 
announced the meal ready, I found it most enjoyable, for 
I had gained a great appetite and the dinner happened to 
be well cooked, one fowl being turned into soup and the 
other roasted. Moreover, Mafta has got into the way of 
making delicious " compotes de bananes." He takes half- 
a-dozen of the small, sweet bananas, those that the French 
call " bananes d'argent," boils them in a little water to a 
pulp, puts in a spoonful of butter, the juice of a lemon, two 
or three drops of brandy (to replace sherry), stirs the whole 
vigorously, and turns out what seems to me an irreproach- 

* Through recent internecine wars on the ^w\. ol\^i'^Ti^N}v??^'3^*, 



146 A JOURNEY UP THE BJVER CONGO. 

able addition to our African cuisine. These little plump 
bananas are intensely sweet, so much so that no sugar is 
ever needed in cooking them. They, indeed, make up to 
me for the present want of saccharine matter which I am 
enduring. I have to drink my coffee without sugar, but 
the fried banana cakes quite atone for this want. 

During my repast, I enjoyed the aesthetic delights of 
bright moonlight shining in softened radiance through the 
overarching forest, while numberless fireflies, like little 
points of electric light, whiz round the . thick bushes. 
There are no mosquitoes here, and with the tranquil peace 
that pervades our little encampment, the perfect health 
that I enjoy, I feel that there are moments in Congo 
travel when a life of civilization is little to be envied. 

February 25th. — This morning a number of people, men, 
women and children, flocked down to see us and to sell 
fowls and other articles of food. The chief, a decidedly 
good-looking man of about thirty, came also, and one of 
his attendant wives spread a leopard-skin for him to sit 
on. He had two little bells hung round his neck, with a 
multitude of teeth and beads ; the teeth, which were of 
monkeys and leopards, being strung into fantastic heck- 
laces. He was pleasant and aflable, and both he and his 
wives roared with laughter when, in order to ascertain the 
name of leopard in their dialect I leapt and snarled to 
imitate that animal. They call him here Ngui, a word 
which under slightly changing forms is common to many 
Bantu tongues. In Kiswahili it is Chui. A curious 
point about the Bantu languages is that the name for lion 
varies greatly, while that for leopard, and, above all, dog, 
is comparatively unchanging. The people at this village 
had ground-nuts (Arachis hypogcea) for sale, a thing I 
have not seen for some time on the Congo. In the river 
here, hippopotami are as abundant and impudent as usual. 
Shortly after we had set off this morning, I was startled 
considerably, and my breakfast went flying out of my lap 
at the sudden and unexpected bump which a big hippo- 
potamus gave to the bottom of the boat. If we had been 
in et, canoe he would, of course, have wrecked us ; as it 



STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA RIVER. 147 

was, although he did no great harm, yet, on afterwards 
examining the keel we found a decided dent in it where he 
had struck the iron. I felt so cross at having my nice 
breakfast scattered over the luggage, that I seized my 
Winchester, and fired it at his head as the great creature 
lifted it from the water a few yards off to see what damage 
he had done. I don't think I killed him, but his struggles 
in the water and the streaks of blood appearing round the 
spot showed that he . had been sharply warned not to 
molest travellers again. 

On a sand-bank where I stopped to bargain with some 
natives, there was an even greater number of butterflies 
collected than yesterday. They seemed to be drinking 
with intense pleasure from the wet shore, and I caught 
ten of them in no time by simply laying hold of them by 
the thorax. 

The natives on this island were all seated in trees, 
perhaps for the sake of shade, but they looked terribly 
like gorillas. The commonest birds along the river, 
which hereabouts has an average breadth of 800 yards, 
are Egyptian geese, Gypohierax vultures, grey parrots, 
ja9anas,* darters,t and the chocolate-brown Scopus um- 
bretta. I also saw, but failed to shoot, Lophotibis, a 
curious, dun-coloured species of ibis, with greenish wings, 
and a relatively short bill, very deep at the base, the 
general contour of the bird recalling the above-named 
Scopus umbretta, 

February 26th. — The scenery is becoming really pic- 
turesque. Ordinarily the Congo is beautiful in detail, 
unimposing as a whole. Indeed for a river of its magni- 
tude it would need Alps to form suitable cliffs for such a 
breadth of water. In this portion, however, some of the 
general effects are strikingly impressive. A splendid 
expanse of stream reflects on its placid surface the blue 
sky and creamy- white clouds above it ; on one side are 
green hills and purple woods, a:nd on the other the 
inimitably graceful Hyphcene palms which in rows and 

* Parra Africana. 
t Plotus levaillanti. 



148 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

groups rise on tbeir slender trunks high above the low 
<»reen shrubs, an I crown majestically the long spits of 
white sand that launch themselves boldly into the shining, 
all-reflecting river. 

The Zanzibaris having found a fine fish just caught in 
one of the native basket-work traps, ask permission to 
stop at some sand-bank and cook it. This is accorded, 
and we are soon alongside a long reach of sand, on which 
some Ba-yansi are already seated. Of course our re- 
ception is cordial, and whilst the Zanzibaris are com- 
mencing their cooking I go off to see the native village 
close by, called Mbila. It is a pretty, contented, quiet- 
looking spot, embosomed in great groves of bananas, and 
surrounded by plantations of manioc. At the time I 
enter it, except a few women who are attending to their 
household duties, every one is absent on the beach, 
chaffering with the Zanzibaris, therefore I have it pretty 
much to myself ; but my arrival causes much excitement 
among the fowls and dogs, who apparently are frightened 
at my white face, and fly in all directions. The fowls 
cackle and screech, but the dogs are too awestruck to 
make any noise ; indeed in this country they never seem 
to have acquired the power of barking. In front of 
several dwellings are the signs of domestic vocations 
being actively carried on. Large jars and other vessels of 
pottery are standing to dry in the sun, and basket-work 
in all its stages is lying about. The houses are well 
constructed and well kept, and the people, who are now 
flocking back to the village, look well fed and prosperous. 
Involuntarily the thought comes to me, "What a con- 
tented, peaceful sort of life this is ! " Few wants, and 
those easily supplied ; no luxury, and no starvation ; no 
yearnings after the unknown, no vague, unsatisfied aspira- 
tions, and no heart-breakings : everything thoroughly 
positive, well-ordered, and material. How will this meet 
the shock of advancing civilization — of the approaching 
contact of black and white ? The natives tell me I am 
the first of my colour who has set foot in their village 
and thej seem proud and pleased at my visit. May they, 



STANLEY POOL TO TtlE KWA RIVER. 149 

never look back to it with sorrow, as marking the advent 
of a new and troublous change in their hitherto peaceful 
annals! The chief of Mbila presented me ere leaving 
with a fleeting souvenir of the village in the shape of the 
biggest plantains I have ever seen. They measured twenty 
inches in length and were very eatable. 

Now the sky began to threaten. Fearful peals of 
thunder resounded over the distant hills, and flashes of 
lightning played against the sombre grey clouds. Yot we 
escaped for a long time the threatened downpour, whilst 
the storm rolled half round the horizon, but at last we 
could hope no longer for immunity, and I strained my 
eyes anxiously to see the station of Msuata, which the 
Zanzibaris were already able to descry with their practised 
vision. Great drops began to fall, and when we at length 
landed on the clayey shore a tremendous sheet of rain 
was hissing through the air, hurrying the still lingering 
twilidit into darkness. 

The chief of the station was absent at the time I 
arrived, but his men showed me the most prompt atten- 
tion, and I was soon installed in a comfortable bedroom, 
able to wash, change my clothes, and ascertain the damage 
my luggage had sustained— an almost daily occupation. 

Feh'uary 21th, — When I had risen this morning I 
found that Lieutenant Janssen (the chief of Msuata 
Station) had arrived late the night before from a visit to a 
great chief across the water, Mpumo Ntaba (the " goat " 
chief), Makoko's successor. He was, however, already up, 
and gave me a very kind welcome when I went to meet 
him in the sallc a manger, where an appetising breakfast 
had been prepared. It consisted, if you are not tired of 
continually perusing African memos — of mugs of goat's 
milk flavoured with a little tea, roast chickens, and 
"kikwanga" fried in ground-nut oil. ("Kikwanga*' is, 
as I have already mentioned, the root of the manioc ox 
cassava, pounded, soaked and fermented, somewhat sour 
and "gluey" in taste. There is the ordinary article, 
called here by the natives Bingolb, and a superior kind 
more carefully prepared, with little av!:-\\sAfes» m S!^ \^^ "^ 



150 A JOUitNJSt tip THE RIVER CONGO. 

Gruyere cheese. This is Luku, and it faintly resembles 
muffins when hot and eaten with butter.) 

M. Janssen is one of the most practical and sensible 
members of the Expedition.* His talent for making the 
best of limited resources is wonderful, and Msuata, purely 
through his energetic and enterprising labours, has become 
one of the most comfortable stations on the route. He 
has constructed a swimming-bath by damming up a little 
river, he has made a large and a small gridiron out of the 
barrels of damaged guns, a table and benches from the 
planks of old canoes, and an oven of sun-dried bricks. 
He has planted a kitchen-garden which produces all 
manner of vegetables; has organised a well-stocked 
poultry-yard, containing over eighty fowls, with a house 
for their numerous eggs to be laid in ; four or five of his 
goats are always in milk, and amongst other discoveries 
he has learnt to make native salads and sauces, and to 
extract an excellent oil from the ground-nuts, which at 
once serves for cooking purposes and for lighting up 
the lamps he has manufactured to use when his candles 
give out. 

Around the station of Msuata, the commonest birds are 
little " bishop " finches, or more properly, weaver-birds, 
with scarlet and black plumage; huge plantain-eaters,t 
blue-green in colour, with a violet crest ; large bee-eaters, 
kites, egrets, and cuckoos. On the northern bank of the 
river the lion is said to be known, and the chief Makoko 
received De Brazza seated on the skin of one of these 
animals. If Felis leo is really found in this part of the 
Congo regions it is curious, as he is not a forest-loving 
animal, and moreover would not find in these countries 
the herds of big game which are and have been the raisin 
d'etre of this great cat. 

The natives on the northern bank opposite Msuata pro- 
fess to know the gorilla, and certainly describe it accurately, 
but say it is found far inland, and does not reach to the 

* He is sioc) unhappily deid; diowmed by the upselting of a canoe 
on the Congo, July, 1883. 
/ Schizorhis giganUa. 



STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA B1VER, 151 

banks of the Congo. A curious roller-bird, Eurystormis, is 
found here, and in small numbers mobs and chases fiercely 
the hawks and fishing-eagles of the rivor. 

The country in the neighbourhood of Msuata is thickly 
populated, in fact we are beginning to enter the densely- 
peopled basin of the Upper Congo. 

The villages hereabouts belong principally to the Ba- 
teke men, and the Ba-yansi people that one meets with 
are mostly traders and not as yet settled in any permanent 
colonies. Farther up the Congo, these two races are 
strangely intermixed, the villages being often alternately 
of either nationality. Still, while the Ba-teke seem to 
have their real home and origin to the N.W. and towards 
the Ogowe, the Ba-yansi come from farther up the river, 
and border on the (so-called) savage Ba-ngala of the 
Equator. 

February 28^/i. — We started this morning for the mouth 
of the Kwa or Wabtima Eiver, fifteen miles from Msuata, 
where I intended to stop the night in a large village. On 
our way we passed the curious promonotory of Ganchu — 
a long spit of land advancing into the river, which seems 
to alternate between island and peninsula. Here is 
situated the village of Ganchu, ruled by an important and 
powerful chief of that name, who, like Lutete and other 
minor potentates on the Congo, gives his name to his 
residential town. The houses of this village are mostly 
built on piles, evidently, as the ground is low, to minimise 
the dangers and inconveniences of a flood. It was this 
village that Stanley, on his first and celebrated descent of 
the Congo, imagined to be inhabited by river pirates, mis- 
understanding the peaceful intention of the inhabitants, 
and it was for some time, I believe, marked "Piraten 
Dorf " on the German maps. 

At the mouth of the Kwa Eiver (which, parenthetically, 
I might mention flows from Lake Leopold II., joins the 
great Kwango from Angola, and enters the Congo about 
3° 20' S. latitude*) is a large and populous Ba-yansi 

* The Kwa River stream at its juncture with the Congo is about 
as broad as the Tljames at Westminster. The landscapes and rivec- 



152 A JOUB^EY UP THE HIVER OOl^OO. 

village, the first fixed settlement of this enterprising tribe 
to be encountered on a journey up the Congo. It is 
exactly at the confluence of the Kwa and the Congo, and 
is very picturesque as seen from the water, a broad lane 
leading up to a grove of oil-palms and bananas, with com- 
pact and tidy-looking houses interspersed among them ; 
but the favourable impression is rather spoilt on landing 
by the horrible black fetid mud, strewn with decaying 
offal, that one has to cross. The people, of course, are 
assembled to greet us, and the chief is there, clad in a 
rusty red garment, and looking not half such a fine fellow 
as many of his subjects. These people here are a finer- 
looking race than any I have yet seen on the Congo. 
Some of the men are perfect Greek statues as regards tlic 
splendid development and poise of their figures. They 
all have pleasing faces because of the good humour which 
enlivens their features. Another remarkable point about 



scapes along the banks of tliis affluent are pretty, being mostly 
shadowy water and rich forest, but otherwise, considering the bulk 
of this mighty river, it is unimpnsing. The mouth of the Kwa is 
not very well adapted for navigation, there being a long sand- 
bank on one side, and a line of rocks on the other, only a tortuous 
passage laying between, while the force of the current through this 
channel is very strong. The upper course of ihe K\va much 
resembles the Congo in appearance. Issuing from Lake Leopold II., 
an expansion of water about seventy miles in length, it broadens 
out greatly in a flat country of dense forest, and is covered with many 
islands. It narrows again where it receives the «;rcat Kwango, and 
the embouchure of these two great rivers united is somewhat 
insignificant. Their waters flow for some time side by side without 
mingling with those of the Congo. 

Note. — Since this was written, the explorations of Wissmann,Grenfell, 
WolfiT and others have resulted in the discovery that the Kwa is none 
other than the Great Kasai, the most important affluent of the Congo, 
to which arc joined the Saukuru with all its affluents, the Kwango 
and its tributary streams, and the rivers from the Bakiindi country. 
The Kasai or Kwa system, therefore, drains almost a third of the 
entire Congo basin. These rivers, also, are navigable for hundreds 
of miles by light-draught steamers. The extraordinary importance 
of these navigable routes into the heart or Africa is only just beginning 
to be realized, though Stanley appreciated it fully fifteen years ago. 
Manchester scoffed then, and is the loser now. 



STANLEt POOL TO THE KWA RIVER. 153 

them is their comparatively great development of hair, on 
the head especially, but also at an early age, all over the 
body, although arrived at maturity their persons are quite 
hairless, for, like most negroes, they dislike extremely all 
growth of hair on the body, and pluck out every hair that 
makes its appearance, scarcely liking even the beard to 
grow. However, en revanche, the hair of the head is 
much encouraged, and really attains to an astonishing 
length, and though crisp and curly, is tortured and 
twisted by its possessors into all sorts of fantastic 
coiffures. The men wear it usually in horns, either on 
the top of the head, or in a pigtail, or depending on each 
side of their cheek ; also in a sort of " chignon." The 
women sometimes just frizz it up round the head, or 
comb it out smoothly and strain it over pads in a manner 
much resembling a hideous style in vogue with us some 
fifteen years ago ; or they will plait it into an infinitude 
of little rat's tails that, from their stiffness, stand up all 
round the head in a bristling manner. 

A red dye, which is got from the bark of a certain tree, 
probably the " camwood " * is used to a great extent for 
colouring their nails, and often their bodies and clothes, 
with a warm tinge of red. They also further decorate 
themselves with white, yellow, and black patterns, made 
respectively with calcareous earth, yellow-ochre, and 
burnt wood. There is much diversity in these designs. 
Sometimes they will draw a white line round their eye- 
lids and down the bridge of their noses, with a line of 
yellow straight down the body from the throat to the 
navel, and black patches on the cheek-bones ; but the 
variety of patterns and designs is too numerous to cata- 
logue. They also practise largely a curious mode of 
decoration by cicatrisation, scoring the cheeks with 
parallel lines, and forming eccentric designs, with raised 
weals or lumps of skm all over their bodies. The cloth 
they wear is nearly all of native manufacture (made of 
woven grass), and is largely dyed and tinged with the 

* Baphia nitida. 



162 A JOTJRJ^EY UP THE HlVElt COmO. 

village, the first fixed settlement of this enterprising tribe 
to be encountered on a journey up the Congo. It is 
exactly at the confluence of the Kwa and the Congo, and 
is very picturesque as seen from the water, a broad lane 
leading up to a grove of oil-palms and bananas, with com- 
pact and tidy-looking houses interspersed among them ; 
but the favourable impression is rather spoilt on landing 
by the horrible black fetid mud, strewn mth decaying 
offal, that one has to cross. The people, of course, are 
assembled to greet us, and the cliief is there, clad in a 
rusty red garment, and looking not half such a fine fellow 
as many of his subjects. These people here are a finer- 
looking race than any I have yet seen on the Congo. 
Some of the men are perfect Greek statues as regards the 
splendid development and poise of their figures. They 
all have pleasing faces because of the good humour which 
enlivens their features. Anotlier remarkable point about 



scapes along the banks of tliis affluent are pretty, being mostly 
shadowy water and rich forest, but otherwise, considering the bulk 
of this mighty river, it is unimpnsing. The mouth of the Kwa is 
not very well adapted for navigation, there being a long sand- 
bank on one side, and a line of rocks on the other, only a tortuous 
passage laying between, while the force of the current through this 
channel is very strong. The upper course of ihc Kwa much 
resembles the Congo in appearance. Issuing from Lake Leopold II., 
an expansion of water about seventy miles in length, it broadens 
out greatly in a flat country of dense forest, and is covered with many 
islands. It narrows again where it receives the «;rcat Kwango, and 
the embouchure of these two great rivers united is somewhat 
insignificant. Their waters flow for some time side by side without 
mingling with those of the Congo. 

Note. — Since this was written, the explorations of Wissmann,Grcnfell, 
Wolff and others have resulted in the discovery that the Kwa is none 
other than the Great Kasai, the most imi)orlant affluent of the Congo, 
to which are joined the Saukuru with all its affluents, the Kwango 
and its tributary streams, and the rivers from the Bakundi country. 
The Kasai or Kwa system, therefore, drains almost a third of the 
entire Congo basin. These rivers, also, are navigable for hundreds 
of miles by light-draught steamers. The extraordinary importance 
of these navigable routes into the heart or Africa is only just beginning 
to be realized, though Stanley appreciated it fully fifteen years ago. 
Manchester scoffed then, and is the loser now. 



STANLEt POOL TO THE KWA RIVER. 153 

them is their comparatively great development of hair, on 
the head especially, but also at an early age, all over the 
body, although arrived at maturity their persons are quite 
hairless, for, like most negroes, they dislike extremely all 
growth of hair on the body, and pluck out every hair that 
makes its appearance, scarcely liking even the beard to 
grow. However, en revanche^ the hair of the head is 
much encouraged, and really attains to an astonishing 
length, and though crisp and curly, is tortured and 
twisted by its possessors into all sorts of fantastic 
coiffures. The men wear it usually in horns, either on 
the top of the head, or in a pigtail, or depending on each 
side of their cheek ; also in a sort of " chignon." The 
women sometimes just frizz it up round the head, or 
comb it out smoothly and strain it over pads in a manner 
much resembling a hideous style in vogue with us some 
fifteen years ago ; or they will plait it into an infinitude 
of little rat's tails that, from their stiffness, stand up all 
round the head in a bristling manner. 

A red dye, which is got from the bark of a certain tree, 
probably the " camwood " * is used to a great extent for 
colouring their nails, and often their bodies and clothes, 
with a warm tinge of red. They also further decorate 
themselves with white, yellow, and black patterns, made 
respectively with calcareous earth, yellow-ochre, and 
burnt wood. There is much diversity in these designs. 
Sometimes they will draw a white line round their eye- 
lids and down the bridge of their noses, with a line of 
yellow straight down the body from the throat to the 
navel, and black patches on the cheek-bones ; but the 
variety of patterns and designs is too numerous to cata- 
logue. They also practise largely a curious mode of 
decoration by cicatrisation, scoring the cheeks with 
parallel lines, and forming eccentric designs, with raised 
weals or lumps of skin all over their bodies. The cloth 
they wear is nearly all of native manufacture (made of 
woven grass), and is largely dyed and tinged with the 

* Baphia nitida. 



154 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

favourite maroon dye. Did they know it, these home- 
made stuJBfs are far more tasteful than the staring Man- 
chester cottons which they are just beginning to covet. 
The women are always more clothed than the men, from 
the time that they are nubile, but as children, and in ado- 
lescence they are generally without even a scrap of cloth- 
ing, whereas the little boys never seem unprovided with 
a tiny apron. The women do not attempt, as in some 
tribes, to hide their breasts ; perhaps for the reason that 
their busts are modelled and developed to a much more 
artistic degree than is usual among African races. 

Some of the young girls are charming little creatures, 
with their tidily dressed hair, their small hands and feet, 
and their budding forms of womanhood. Until they 
reach a marriageable age, they run about gaily in all the 
beauty and innocence of perfect nudity, the sole attempt 
at — what shall I say ? — clothing, or personal adornment, 
being a large brass collar round the neck, and copper 
anklets. There was one such child that I shall always 
remember with affection in this village at the mouth of 
the Kwa. We took a mutual fancy to one another, and 
she constituted herself my little guide, taking my hand 
with the greatest confidence and leading me through the 
village to show me the sights. Seeing me gather flowers 
to preserve, she afterwards presented me with an armful 
which she had laboriously plucked, and later on she 
pressed into my hand three new-laid eggs, warm from the 
nest, from which she had probably robbed them. 

One word for the babies : they squall terribly, and are 
endowed with plentiful crops of hair, which is finer in 
quality and less curly than that of their grown-up 
parents. 

The people here have a regular craving for salt, and the 
chief was enraptured with the bestowal of a handful ; one 
gentleman brought his wife, or one of his wives, and 
wished to exchange her for a moderate quantity of the 
precious condiment. 

There was a fine handsome tree in the centre of a broad 
square here, covered with large yellow blossoms of graceful 



STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA RIVER, 155 

shape and delicate vanilla-like perfume. It was evidently 
regarded by the natives with some veneration, for I could 
see they did not like me to gather the flowers, and after 
I had picked one or two sprays, they asked me to desist, 
offering me yellow pufnpkin flowers as an equivalent. 

I slept this night iu a comfortable and cleanly house, 
divided into three rooms, which might be described as 
kitchen, parlour, and bedroom. The more we advance 
into the interior along the Congo, the higher in social 
science the natives seem to stand; the houses, their 
furniture, decoration and orderly comfort; the utensils, 
the pottery and the work in metal : all seem to undergo 
a material improvement and development in proportion 
as we leave the coast behind us. 

March IsL — We bid adieu to our friends this morning 
with many protestations of mutual regard, and they came 
down to the slimy shore and shouted, " Mbote ! " until we 
were out of sight. I was hardly in a state to reciprocate 
their boisterous friendship, for an insidious attack of fever 
was creeping over me. It began, as usual, with a great 
increase of mental activity. One is too excited to stop 
and write down one's thoughts, although you feel that 
had you done so, some very brilliant things might have 
been preserved. But all exertion is disagreeable to the 
fever's victim, and he feels content to sit and compose 
chapters of novels and disquisitions on Natural History 
problems in his whirling brain, without attempting to 
commit the fleeting kaleidoscope images to paper. This 
first stage of the fever is by no means disagreeable. One 
enjoys the same sensations as those produced by a 
, sufficiency of good champagne; but, unfortunately, the 
phase of utter weariness and melancholy that follows is a 
bitter contrast to the preceding elevation and excitement, 
and the brilliant images of heretofore now seem trite 
stupidities.* 

* However, I was singularly lucky in Africa. These fleeting 
touches of fever, rarely lastiug more than a few hours, and scarcely 
worthy to be chronicled, were the only form ol indisposition I ever 
had durin;^ my sixteen months passed in the Dark Go\itva&\i^, 



154 A JOUJRNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

favourite maroon dye. Did they know it, these home- 
made stuJBfs are far more tasteful than the staring Man- 
chester cottons which they are just beginning to covet. 
The women are always more clothed than the men, from 
the time that they are nubile, but as children, and in ado- 
lescence they are generally without even a scrap of cloth- 
ing, whereas the little boys never seem unprovided with 
a tiny apron. The women do not attempt, as in some 
tribes, to hide their breasts ; perhaps for the reason that 
their busts are modelled and developed to a much more 
artistic degree than is usual among African races. 

Some of the young girls are charming little creatures, 
with their tidily dressed hair, their small hands and feet, 
and their budding forms of womanhood. Until they 
reach a marriageable age, they run about gaily in all the 
beauty and innocence of perfect nudity, the sole attempt 
at — what shall I say ? — clothing, or personal adornment, 
being a large brass collar round the neck, and copper 
anklets. There was one such child that I shall always 
remember with affection in this village at the mouth of 
the Kwa. We took a mutual fancy to one another, and 
she constituted herself my little guide, taking my hand 
with the greatest confidence and leading me through the 
village to show me the sights. Seeing me gather flowers 
to preserve, she afterwards presented me with an armful 
which she had laboriously plucked, and later on she 
pressed into my hand three new-laid eggs, warm from the 
nest, from which she had probably robbed them. 

One word for the babies : they squall terribly, and are 
endowed with plentiful crops of hair, which is finer in 
quality and less curly than that of their grown-up 
parents. 

The people here have a regular craving for salt, and the 
chief was enraptured with the bestowal of a handful ; one 
gentleman brought his wife, or one of his wives, and 
wished to exchange her for a moderate quantity of the 
precious condiment. 

There was a fine handsome tree in the centre of a broad 
square here, covered with large yellow blossoms of graceful 



STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA RIVER. 155 

shape aad delicate vanilla-like perfume. It was evidently 
regarded by the natives with some veneration, for I could 
see they did not like me to gather the flowers, and after 
I had picked one or two sprays, they asked me to desist, 
offering me yellow puinpkin flowers as an equivalent. 

I slept this night iu a comfortable and cleanly house, 
divided into three rooms, which might be described as 
kitchen, parlour, and bedroom. The more we advance 
into the interior along the Congo, the higher in social 
science the natives seem to stand; the houses, their 
furniture, decoration and orderly comfort; the utensils, 
the pottery and the work in metal : all seem to undergo 
a material improvement and development in proportion 
as we leave the coast behind us. 

March IsL — We bid adieu to our friends this morning 
with many protestations of mutual regard, and they came 
down to the slimy shore and shouted, " Mbote ! " until we 
were out of sight. I was hardly in a state to reciprocate 
their boisterous friendship, for an insidious attack of fever 
was creeping over me. It began, as usual, with a great 
increase of mental activity. One is too excited to stop 
and write down one's thoughts, although you feel that 
had you done so, some very brilliant things might have 
been preserved. But all exertion is disagreeable to the 
fever's victim, and he feels content to sit and compose 
chapters of novels and disquisitions on Natural History 
problems in his whirling brain, without attempting to 
commit the fleeting kaleidoscope images to paper. This 
first stage of the fever is by no means disagreeable. One 
enjoys the same sensations as those produced by a 
, sufficiency of good champagne; but, unfortunately, the 
phase of utter weariness and melancholy that follows is a 
bitter contrast to the preceding elevation and excitement, 
and the brilliant images of heretofore now seem trite 
stupidities.* 

* However, I was singularly lucky in Africa. These fleeting 
touches of fever, rarely lasting more than a few hours, and scarcely 
worthy to be chronicled, were the only form oi indisposition I ever 
hatl during; my sixteen months passed in the Dark Goiitii\ft\:v.t>. 



156 A JOURNEY UP THE RTVER CONGO. 

We advanced but little to-day beyond the Kwa for 
continuing to feel poorly, T stopped the boat at noon and 
had my tent put up on the eastern shore, so that I might 
go to bed and get rid of the fever. We were here nearly 
opposite to the embouchure of soine large river flowing 
in on the western bank of the Congo.* The country is so 
populous hereabouts that it is impossible to camp any- 
where without being near a village, consequently we were 
soon surrounded by crowds of noi^iy though good-tempered 
natives. I noticed this afternoon among the people that 
came to look at me a curious type, quite different from 
the rcot, a small youth (or a young man ?) with rather 
long, curly, and yellowish hair, arranged on his scalp in 
separate tufts, ^oc(?7i?ie, as the French would call it, having, 
moreover, a savage and wild expression on his features 
and a general tournure of body recalling the bushmen 
whom I have seen in South- Western Africa. Curiously 
enough, there was an old woman, also with yellowish hair, 
and stunted in form, in the last village we passed. 
" Yellowish " is perhaps not quite accurate enough. I might 
rather say a dirty dun-colour like the skins of these queer 
beings. I made inquiries through the Zanzibaris as to 
who they were in each village, but beyond learning that 
they were slaves and came from the East, I ascertained 
nothing further, nor could I find out whether they belonged 
to a tribe of dwarfs or not. The little boy with his bow 
and arrows and his savage face and gestures was a strange 
and striking type, utterly different to the grinning, good- 
tempered children round him, who, by contmst, appeared 
quite black, so pale in colour was his skin. 

* De Brazza's AUma, The " Lavvson " River of Stanley. 



( 157 ) 



CHAPTEE IX. 

TO BOLOBO. 

Mbonqc — French Flags at Mbamo — Embe — Value of Salt — 
Footprints of Hippopotami — Sand-banks and Islands — 
BoLOBo — The Great Chief Ibaka — TiS^e Mosquitoes — A Royal 
Visit — A Drinking Ceremony — Ibaka*s peculiar Hat — Hodsks 
AT BoLOBO — A Sketching Adventure — The Fetish Man — 
His Duties and Occupations — Herds of Elephants and 
Buffaloes — Animals of the D. strict — Metals — ^Monkoli 
Topaz. 

March 2nd, — The forest scenery is becoming richer and 
more " tropical looking " the farther we advance towards 
the Equator, that is, I mean, that the vegetation is assum- 
ing the same luxuriant character, the wild exuberant 
growth which are usually associated with aspects of nature 
under an equatorial sun and a zone of constant rain. 
The stream of the Congo is at the present time thronged 
with masses of a brilliantly green water-plant, Fistia 
stratioteSy common to most tropical rivers. The recent 
floods have detached it from the little inlets and quiet 
reaches, where it ordinarily grows, and have brought it 
down in great quantities with the stream, and are also the 
cause of the many floating logs and torn-up trees which 
frequently block the navigation. 

There are many rocks along the river*s bank and 
stretching out some distance into the current, suggesting 
the idea of their being the remains of ancient cataracts. 
Indeed when one says that the falls of the Congo do not 
begin until below Stanley Pool, it is hardly correct. The 
only difference between the upper and lower river is this, 
that above Stanley Pool the rapids are never sufficiently 
serious to hinder navigation. 



158 



A JOVRNET UP THE BIVES CONGO. 



About four o'clock, the men wanted to stop at a large 
and populous village, the natives of which, to the number 
of nearly a hundred, were assembled along the sandy 
beach imploring ua to land and pass the night in their 
town. They vaunted the abundance of fowls, kikwanga, 
and other victuals, but 1 would not yield, for we had yet 
two hours of daylight which it was imperative not to 




Fiotia olratiotcs. 



waste, and I felt sure, as all this eastern side of the river 
is thickly populated, that we should be likely to find 
another village farther on. We did so an hour and a half 
later, but there was a furious rapid to cross before we 
could reach it — one that had to be attempted twice before 
■we could struggle past the rocks. Unfortunately, the 
men broke two oars here, and, therefore, for the rest of the 



TO BOLOBO. 



159 



joiimey we shall have lost two rowers. Once we had 
landed, I felt pleased at having opposed the wishes of the 
Zanzibaris, because I had gained two hours of daylight, 
passed the formidable rapids, and chosen for our night's 
sojourn the nicest little village I have met with on the 
Congo. Its name is Mbongo. The people were very kind 
and courteous. They spread grass mats for me to sit on, 
brought me fresh malafu to drink, and seeing I had a 




feverish attack, left me in peace in my tent with many 
expressions of sympathy. Later on in the evening, the 
chief arrived with a present of four fowls, a calabash of 
malafu, and, most welcome of all, some new-laid eggs. 
The malafu here is made exclusively from the juice of the 
sugar-cane. The fermented drink made from the wine 
pBlm (Eaphia mnifera) or the oil-palm (Elats guineensis) 
is unknown, though iu each village many of these treea 



164 A JOUBSEY VP THE ElVER CONGO. 

jingling of brass rods decided all lieaitatiou as to our 
reception, and the hostile natives beat a swift and 
ignominious retreat, followed by the taunts of the friendly 
ones. We landed at dnsk, and were met with a clamour 
of greetings that was perfectly deafening. Fowls and 




eggs were brought for sale, and, though rather dear, I 
bought them to strengthen our mutual friendship, for 
there is nothing like commerce to inspire confidence and 
lull suspicion. When I gave one man a handful of salt, 
which they c&ll "Mpongwe," his yells of del^ht were 



To BoLono. 165 

quite painful, whilst each of his comrades repeated after 
him, with aii hysterical, and a falsetto voice, " Mpongwe, 
mpongwe ! " Therefore, being on terms of such cordiality, 
I took the liberty of asking them to go away and let me 
eat and sleep in peace, which, to my relief, they promptly 
did, telling the Zanzibaris before leaving that I must 
indeed be a great chief to possess two whole bottles of 
salt 

March 4:th, — What a miserable morning ! One can 
hardly believe oneself in the same world as yesterday — 
a sky filled with fearful storm-clouds and a thick rain 
falling. It required some resolution to start, and tlie 
Zanzibaris suggested our remaining till noon where we 
were, but right or wrong I insisted on going on. I don't 
think I stood very well in the men's graces this morning. 
Yesterday I gave tliem two hours' more work than they 
wanted, and to-day I made them start in the rain. Two 
or three smart showers followed up the storm, then a burst 
of furious wind which lashed the Congo into waves and 
rocked our boat as if we were on the sea ; then a dead 
calm and, at last, our faithless friend, the sun, veiling 
himself with white clouds, appeared in a half-hearted, 
shame-stricken manner. About noon, the orb now shining 
brightly, we stopped at a little island, one of the many 
that dot the surface of the vast river, to give the men time 
to cook their bananas. It was not remarkable for much 
beyond footprints in the moist soil. I drew several of 
these impressions in my sketch-book, as they gave an 
excellent idea of the " artiodactyle " foot in an incipient 
stage. Here too, and on other neighbouring islands, was 
growing a papilionaceous plant new to me, having leaves 
and a thorny stem like the mimosas, with flowers of a 
gaudy orange. 

Towards sunset we halted at a sand-bank, or sandy 
island, in the middle of the Congo, half a mile in width 
and perhaps a mile long. On arriving, a multitude of 
water birds were in possession, but at our approach they 
flew off to other haunts. There only remained large flocks 
of red-billed terns, which circled and 8»c»t^a.X!DksA \.^\«^^ ^ssas. 



166 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER COmO. 

heads as if demanding compensation for being turned out 
of their own property. 

Here, on this island, it seemed like the land of a 
visionary. A gorgeous sunset, with glowing masses of 
golden-red clouds irradiated the west, and repeated its 
glories with almost undiminished brilliancy in the vast 
sheet of tranquil water. On one side of us fantastically 
wooded, palm-crested islets floated in reflected gold, with 
every branch and frond of their tree-tops telling out 
against the shining sky. Long lines of weary birds flew 
low over the water, with faint cries of greeting to each 
other as they neared their shelter for the night. On the 
other side of the island, and so close as almost to over- 
shadow us, great masses of waterside forest rose into the 
sky, tinged with the warm yellow light of the opposite 
sunset, and filling with their long and clear reflections 
the strait of water that lay between them and our sandy 
shore. 

The grey parrots were in high spirits to-night, as they 
flew home across the river. They seemed to be telling 
each other " good things " as they passed over our heads 
in little bands, for their exulting screams and chuckling 
whistles were full of wild merriment. Whenever the 
grey parrot appears to be in a good temper flying home it 
is a sign, according to my observation, that the morrow is 
going to be a fine day, as also when he is out on his 
travels early in the morning. 

At length the glowing sunset died away, and I had, half 
reluctantly, to turn from this dreamland, where somehow 
thoughts of home seemed insensibly mingled with the 
clouds, the birds and the shimmering water, and attend to 
the necessities of the moment. Without my personal 
superintendence dinner would be an uncertain result, so 
the chest of provisions had to be unpacked and its 
contents distributed ; and whilst Mafta, the Zanzibari 
cook, my pupil in the culinary art, was killing a lean fowl, 
first reverently saying, " In the name of Allah " as he cut 
its throat, I sat on a camp-stool dealing out the preserved 
vegetables, the lemon-juice, the flour, butter, rice, bananas, 



To ioLOSo. 167 

salt and pepper, that were to go, together with the fowl 
bouillon, to make a perfect soup. The flesh has to be cut 
off from the fowl bones, and is put with them into the pot 
to simmer slowly. Then the liver and gizzard are chopped 
up fine and thrown into the savoury bubbling broth, and 
the result is an appetising and soothing soup, in which a 
great amount of nourishment may be commodiously 
swallowed. The preparation of this meal, however, is 
somewhat lengthy, and ere it is served to me on my 
impromptu table of chests and boxes, the dusky drowsy 
night has swallowed up the beauties of the twilight. How 
utter is the feeling of isolation here ! There is nothing to 
alarm or sadden ; on the contrary, the girdle of darkness 
round our little island gives -it a cosy feeling of security 
and peace, but we seem here so remote from everything 
but the stars. 

March 5th. — ^We started by the early dawn in order to 
reach Bolobo by the evening if possible. The river, in this 
part of its course, owing no doubt to its great breadth, 
appears to be very shallow, and the boat is constantly 
running aground on sand-banks : nor do the natives* 
canoes that are round us escape entirely this contrariety, 
however slight their draught of water may be. It has 
a very extraordinary effect to see men walking halfway 
over a great branch of the river, with water only up 
to their ankles, tracing the course of some hidden sand- 
bank. 

The high hills and downs that have hitherto bordered 
the Congo begin to grow more and more distant, and 
finally disappear into blue obscurity. One last range 
comes into view and terminates abruptly in a solitary 
peak, somewhat picturesquely jagged, and then the great 
basin of central Africa begins, and splendid forests take 
possession of the banks of the river, woods of such a mag- 
nificent character that I think I have never seen richer 
growth of vegetation in Africa. 

There are here so many islands that it is difficult to see 
the mainland, except at rare intervals. One of them alone 
is ten miles long. 



iC8 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVtJR CO If 00. 

A great concourse of people, and an almost continuous 
series of villages on the east bank, show that we are 
entering the very populous district of Bolobo. At the 
principal assemblage of houses, in a picturesque and leafy- 
spot, the Zanzibaris stop rowing, for the great chief of all 
this district, Ibaka, " Eoi de Bolobo," as he is called in 
the Expedition, is seen wending his way down to the 
beach, accompanied by many women, to greet the white 
man who has entered his territory. He wears a hat as 
famous as that of Chumbiri in Stanley's ' Dark Continent/ 
Ibaka comes down to the water-side, leans over the boat 
and shakes liands cordially, after which, with many 
*' Mbotes " — magic word ! — we continue our route on 
towards the station, while Ibaka shouts out an equivalent 
to " au revoir." We can now descry our destination on a 
distant headland, but, in spite of the utmost efforts on the 
part of the Zanzibaris, we do not arrive until nightfall, for 
we are constantly sticking on sand-banks and running 
upon sunken trees. 

Bolobo station* is situated on the summit of a bluff 
rising directly from the river. The place consists of one 
large stockaded building, at once a residence for the white 
man, and a citadel of resistance in case of attack, and a 
series of little habitations clustered round the centre, 
where the Zanzibaris and the Krumanosf live. This little 
station and its tiny garrison were very nearly having to 
fight for their lives a short time before my aiTival. Some 
relative of King Ibaka*s wishing to get up a little diversion 
which would redound to his glory, proposed to his followers 
to loot the station and massacre the whites. Fortunately, 
when all were preparing for the struggle. King Ibaka 
intervened, and matters now looked very smooth, the 

* This establishment was the farthest settlement of white men on 
the Congo at the time of my visit, though, now there are many other 
stations Ibunded far beyond it. 

t " Krumanos," a Portuguese corruption of Kru man or Kru boy, is 
conventionally used on the upper river to in«licate the indigenous 
carriers and servants who work for hire. On the lower river it means 
^'s/a ves, " 



TO BOLOBO. 169 

fortifications, however, remained to show through what a 
time of anxiety the station had passed.* 

There are three Europeans here, Lieut. Orban, the chief 
of the station, and two commercial agents, a Frenchman 
and a Belgian. 

Bolobo has one terrible disadvantage. Mosquitoes 
abound to such an incredible degree that after dark it is 
torture to have to sit at dinner, for they bite through 
your trousers and socks — your hands, too, are soon swollen 
and poisoned. Consequently all pleasant conversation at 
Bolobo is impossible after the cloth has been withdrawn ; 
and you hasten off to bed to put a mosquito-curtain 
between yourself and your enemies. There was one great 
and unaccustomed treat I enjoyed at Bolobo, which, after 
my long deprivation, seemed to compensate for all other 
things lacking — plenty of coffee and good goat's milk. 
Food generally is scarce, and what there is consists of the 
same unchanging fowls, goats, and kikwanga. 

March 6th. — This morning early, King Ibaka, attended 
by a numerous and distingushed suite, arrived to pay us a 
visit. After the palaver of ceremony w^as over I asked 
permission to take his portrait, wliich was accorded, but 
he had not the slightest intention of sitting for it, and 
moved about at will. At length Orban liit on an excellent 
expedient for inducing the King to give me a chance of 
successfully portraying his features, and at the same time 
of exhibiting to me a curious native custom. So he pro- 
posed to Ibaka a solemn drinking bout of malafu. " Le 
Eoi de Bolobo " willingly assented, and certain hirelings 
were told off to go and fetch some large jars of freshly- 
drawn palm-wine. 

Long, long ago, in the legends of the Ba-yansi,t a King 
of Bolobo was drinking malafu at his ease one day when 

* Since I left Bolobo, war actually took place, and the besieged 
garrison were only relieved by the opportune arrival of Mr. Stanley, 
who quelled the disturbances without firing a shot. 

t This is one of the many local explanations of these curious 
drinking customs, but it will not suffice to explain tk<eav ^\k^\xsst \a 
account for their wide-spread existence m'WeaV^in M\\r».% 



iG8 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVkR CO^QO, 

A great concourse of people, and an almost continuous 
series of villages on the east bank, show that we are 
entering the very populous district of Bolobo. At the 
principal assemblage of houses, in a picturesque and leafy 
spot, the Zanzibaris stop rowing, for the great chief of all 
this district, Ibaka, " Eoi de Bolobo," as he is called in 
the Expedition, is seen wending his way down to the 
beach, accompanied by many women, to greet the white 
man who has entered his territory. He wears a hat as 
famous as that of Chumbiri in Stanley*s ' Dark Continent/ 
Ibaka comes down to the water-side, leans over the boat 
and shakes liands cordially, after which, with many 
*' Mbotes '* — magic word ! — we continue our route on 
towards the station, while Ibaka shouts out an equivalent 
to " au revoir." We can now descry our destination on a 
distant headland, but, in spite of the utmost efforts on the 
part of the Zanzibaris, we do not arrive until nightfall, for 
we are constantly sticking on sand-banks and running 
upon sunken trees. 

Bolobo station* is situated on the summit of a bluff 
rising directly from the river. The place consists of one 
large stockaded building, at once a residence for the white 
man, and a citadel of resistance in case of attack, and a 
series of little habitations clustered round the centre, 
where the Zanzibaris and the Krumanosf live. This little 
station and its tiny garrison were very nearly having to 
fight for their lives a short time before my arrival. Some 
relative of King Ibaka's wishing to get up a little diversion 
which would redound to his glory, proposed to his followers 
to loot the station and massacre the whites. Fortimately, 
when all were preparing for the struggle, King Ibaka 
intervened, and matters now looked very smooth, the 

* This establishment was the farthest settlement of white men on 
the Congo at the time of my visit, though, now there are many other 
stations founded far beyond it. 

t " Krumanos," a Portuguese corruption of Kru man or Kru boy, is 
conventionally used on the upper river to indicate the indigenous 
carriers and servants who work for iiire. On the lower river it means 
''slaves,'* 



TO BOLOBO. 169 

fortifications, however, remained to show through what a 
time of anxiety the station had passed.* 

Tliere are three Europeans here, Lieut. Orban, the chief 
of the station, and two commercial agents, a Frenchman 
and a Belgian. 

Bolobo has one terrible disadvantage. Mosquitoes 
abound to such an incredible degree that after dark it is 
torture to have to sit at dinner, for they bite through 
your trousers and socks — your hands, too, are soon swollen 
and poisoned. Consequently all pleasant conversation at 
Bolobo is impossible after the cloth has been withdrawn ; 
and you hasten off to bed to put a mosquito-curtain 
between yourself and your enemies. There was one great 
and unaccustomed treat I enjoyed at Bolobo, which, after 
my long deprivation, seemed to compensate for all other 
things lacking — plenty of coffee and good goat's milk. 
Food generally is scarce, and what there is consists of the 
same unchanging fowls, goats, and kikwanga. 

March Qth. — This morning early. King Ibaka, attended 
by a numerous and distingushed suite, arrived to pay us a 
visit. After the palaver of ceremony w^as over I asked 
permission to take his portrait, which was accorded, but 
he had not the slightest intention of sitting for it, and 
moved about at will. At length Orban hit on an excellent 
expedient for inducing the King to give me a chance of 
successfully portraying his features, and at the same time 
of exhibiting to me a curious native custom. So he pro- 
posed to Ibaka a solemn drinking bout of malafu. " Le 
Eoi de Bolobo " willingly assented, and certain hirelings 
were told off to go and fetch some large jars of freshly- 
drawn palm-wine. 

Long, long ago, in the legends of the Ba-yansi,t a King 
of Bolobo was drinking malafu at his ease one day when 

* Since I left Bolobo, war actually took place, and the besieged 
garrison were only relieved by the opportune arrival of Mr. Stanley, 
who quelled the disturbances without firing a shot. 

t This is one of the many local explanations of these curioua 
drinking customs, but it will not suffice to explain tkeia. ^VV^\!kKft \a 
account for their wide-spread existence in "Wealcin Mx\aa.% 



170 A JOURNEi" tip tllE tllVER CONOO. 

a leopard stole up behind him unawares, jumped on his 
back, and strangled him before the King could cry for 
help. To avoid such a catastrophe in future, the following 
ceremony was instituted by his successor. Before the 
King is about to drink, he imposes silence on the people 
assembled by snapping his fingers towards them and 
crying " Ma " (" ma " is an exclamation to call attention 
to anything: it is used to dogs). A wife is crouched 
behind him, a little boy on his left hand. The wife then 
also calls " Ma," and clasps her lord tightly round the 
stomach with both hands. The little boy covers his face 
with one hand, and claps the other continually on his 
extended leg. Then the King, sticking the first finger of 
his left hand into his throat, below the ear, with the right 
hand raises the glass and drinks. After he has quenched 
his thirst he passes his hand across his mouth, and then 
points with his first finger in the direction where he next 
intends to levy war. When he has not any quarrel 
immediately on hand, he simply points his finger upwards ; 
then snaps his finger, says " Ma " again, and the ceremony 
is at an end and talking is resumed. All the details of 
this tiring performance were carefully gone through whilst 
Ibaka drank the malafu in our presence ; but I should 
think the constant repetition of this ritual every time he 
drinks must be very wearying to the flesh. Orban tells 
me, however, that on occasions of hurry or emergency 
there is a sort of shorter service, when it suffices the King 
to be in absolute darkness, like a sensitive " negative," to 
quench his thirst without going through the more elaborate 
ceremonies observed on other occasions. Ibaka's hat is a 
very remarkable one. There is literally more in it than 
meets the eye, for within this capacious receptacle much 
" cloth " and all his most special and private valuables are 
stored. Tliis extraordinary structure, which is made out 
of plaited grass, never leaves Ibaka*s head more than once 
a twelvemonth, " for our annual cleaning," and he wears 
it day and night. " Uneasy lies the head that wears a 
crown/* The decorations of Ibaka's hat are of exotic 
origin. The lizards are cut out ot tvafcSL, wcA \sv!v.w\l- 



TO iOLOSO. 171 

factured, possibly in Birmingham, and that curious 
plaque in the centre is the label of the first and only 
champagne bottle whicli ever reached Bolobo, and which 
was drunk on the birthday of the King of the Belgians. 
Ibaka attended the banquet, but declined any champagne, 
asking, however, for its glittering label. 

These curious wicker-work, or plaited-grass hats, are 
common to all the great chiefs in this part of the Upper 
Congo. 

The civilization of the natives of Bolobo, wlio are 
Ba-yansi people, is of a higher order than is usually met 
with in savage Africa, and it is certainly purely in- 
digenous. Their houses, arms, and household implements 
are constructed with skill and taste, and the people 
generally exhibit a considerable amount of savoir /aire et 
vivi^e. They are great traders, and travel many hundred 
miles up and down the river, engaged in trafficking their 
ivory, slaves, and smoked fish. 

In the afternoon, to-day, I went into one of the neigh- 
bouring towns, some two miles distant, where I wished to 
draw a house, for the dwellings here differ considerably in 
design and construction from those farther down the 
river, and to study the way of living of its inhabitants. 
The natives received me very well, and took great interest 
in my work ; too much interest, in fact, for certain 
officious friends, in their anxiety to keep the course clear, 
showed an ill-judged severity towards the unwitting 
persons who came between me and my object. They beat 
a woman, who beat a boy, who threw a stone at somebody 
else, and soon there was a general row, in the middle of 
which I thought it best to retire, in case the excitement 
which was surging amongst them should be turned against 
the white man who had unwittingly brought discord into 
their peaceful village with his sorcerish practices of 
" scratching images on white cloth with a piece of stick." 
Indeed, had I doubted as to the propriety of retiring to 
fresh fields and pastures new, my hesitation would not 
have lasted long, for a friendly young man, who Kadvw?>. 
measure constituted himself my gvn.d^, \,ciCi\L tcoj ^^\rJ^- 



172 



A JOURNEY VP TBE RXVER CONGO. 



book witli an apologetic "Mbote" closed it o^^t^y *"<^^ 
taking me l)\ the hand led me out of the crowd iortu- 
nately my sketch cf the house itseli was finished %nd I 
WIS only obh^ed to leave incomplete a group of natives in 
the ioieground I tned to mike iii) retieat seem as little 
hke Liie as possible and stopped frequently to jilay with 
children and admite the irma and spears of the natives 
who were closing up behind me All the "fame I felt 
myself bein^ is pohtely as possible ejected from the 
villige and the smiling natives insistcl on iccompinyiug 




me until I was well out of the precincts of their xilace, 
and on the toad to tlie station. After all, I think tliey 
behaved very well in not assaulting me. I was alone, 
niiarnied, and completely in then- power. It was the first 
time a white man had ever visited that spot, and then he 
must needs signalise his visit by doing such uncanny 
tilings as making sketches and collecting plants, from 
either of which mal-practices any sensitive negro might 
have been justified in accusing him of witchcraft, aud 
excused for wishing to break the spell by shedding his 
hlood. 



TO BOLD BO. 173 

However, shortly after my return to the station King 
Ibaka arrived, with the most profuse apologies for my 
ejectment by his subjects; in fact, he said he felt so 
bitterly the slight which had been offered to one of his 
friends, that he could only be assured of the restoration of 
our former good relations if, just as a form, I would give 
him a present of some blue cloth. I paid this debt to 
friendship, but King Ibaka received evasively my request 
to come and visit him chez lui, although I did afterwards 
make a sort of formal tour of a little village, being walked 
round. the place by the King himself, but not allowed to 
stop any where and sketch. 

A few pine-apples are found at Bolobo between the 
stajtion and the native towns, but the fruit appears to be 
rare elsewhere in the vicinity, and we are evidently here 
on the confines of the district over which " Ananassa sativa" 
has spread with such wonderful vigour and rapidity. 
Another American introduction of a much later date, 
and of decidedly different bearing towards mankind — the 
horrible little "jigger" or burrowing flea — has just reached 
Bolobo from the coast, though so recently that the natives 
are only just beginning to be conscious of its presence, 
and have not yet given it a name. 

This evening was passed like most others at Bolobo. 
We held out against the mosquitoes just long enough to 
eat our dinner, and then hurried off to bed and the relief 
from these tortures that is only to be found within. 



SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON BOLOBO. 

The people inhabiting the banks of the Congo in this 
district are, as has already been stated, Ba-yansi, but this 
race seems limited to little more than a strip of land 
bordering the river, and does not extend its settlements 
far from the banks. On the eastern side of the Congo the 
race of the interior is the Ba-nunu, who seem to live on 
friendly terms with the Ba-yansi. At Bolobo there la tucA 
local fetish-man or doctor, and t\v^ "^^o^*^ >iX\a\^\s!N^^ nj^ 



174 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

depend ou the Ba-nunu to supply one when necessary. 
This personage is required for many purposes — to per- 
form certain rites and ceremonies such as circumcision, to 
heal sicknesses, and to decide legal disputes or judge 
criminals. The fetish-man's decisions on all knotty points 
of law, and his general perspicacity in judicial investiga- 
tions, are much thought of among the Ba-yansi. When 
the Mu-nunti is called upon to examine into some case of 
theft or crime, he subjects the implicated persons to a 
most rigorous questioning before arriving at a decision. 
The " costs " exacted by this gentleman are tremendous, 
and act eflf'ectively as a prevention against undue litigious- 
ness on the part of natives. 

Ibaka, the paramount chief of Bolobo, is one of the few 
potentates of the Western Congo that can be said in any 
way to be a ruler or kinglet of importance. His 
sovereignty is hereditary, and his family is considered 
royal even in its collateral branches. He rules over a 
thickly inhabited strip of the river about seventy miles in 
length, of uncertain width, and with a population of from 
forty to fifty thousand. Beyond his own subjects, how- 
ever, his influence is widely felt throughout the Ba-yansi 
tribes, and he occupies perhaps the same position towards 
that people as Mpumo Ntaba, the successor of Makoko, 
does towards the lia-teke. 

The country in the vicinity of Bolobo is a low table- 
land covered with dense forest. We are here in the 
central basin of Africa, through which the course of the 
Upper Congo lies, and the forests owe much of their 
luxuriance to the abundant rain-fall and to the short 
duration of the dry season. 

Owing to the dense population and the prevalence of 
cultivated districts even in the forest, many wild animals 
seem to shun this country ; still there are large herds of 
elephants and buffaloes which are little interfered with by 
the natives, whose sporting proclivities are not very 
strong, and whose ivory is all received from tribes further 
up the river, and not procured from the herds of pro- 
poscidean^ which range these forests, lu the same way, 



TO BOLOBO. 175 

although the red buffalo's skulls and horns may be con- 
stantly seen in the villages, I never heard of the people 
taking the trouble to hunt it ; they seem rather to content 
themselves with gathering these relics whenever they 
meet with them, doubtless after the feast of some lion or 
leopard, and depositing them among the half-sacred 
curiosities of their villages.* 

The lion, leopard, striped hyaena, black-backed jackal, 
and civet cat are known here, and the gorilla, or some 
kindred anthropoid ape, is described by the natives as 
inhabiting the northern or western bank of the Congo. 
The red river-hog,t which the natives call by the same 
name as their domestic pig — Ngulu — is very common, and 
although often killed and eaten by the natives, does not 
seem to shun their villages. I even have reason to believe 
that in parts it lives in the same half-domesticated state 
as noticed by Schweinfurth among the Nyam-nyams. 

Iron seems to be largely worked in the interior, and the 
Ba-yansi of Bolobo shape it into many beautiful knives, 
axes, and spear heads. Copper they also possess, largely, 
but I cannot say whether it is locally found and melted. 

The natives speak of a kind of topaz which they call 
"Monkoli." It is described as either pale blue or yellow 
in colour, and abundantly found in the interior of the 
country. 

* In Ki-yansi, the name for buffalo is ng^omhuy a classic term in 
most Bantu tongues for "ox." The Ba-yansi have uo domestic cattle, 
t Sus j)oreus. 



176 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 



CHAPTER X. 

MSUATA. 
Return from Bolobo — ^Itimba — A Burial Scene — A Village 

DECORATED WITH SkULLS — EUPHORBIAS — MbOKGO AGAIN — 

Mukemo — The Outlet of the Lawson — Join Lieutenant 
Janssen — Life at Msuata — The Haunt of the Elephant— 
The Blue Plantain Eater— Birds and Crocodiles — The 
Clouds — ^The Storm-^A Visit to Gobila-^Mak6l6 ukder 
1'reatment — A Trap for the Leopard — His Death. 

I LEFT Bolobo, after a few days' stay, to return to Msuata, 
the station near the confluence of the Kwa river. I had 
hoped to pursue my journey farther up the Congo, but 
\vith the paucity of men at my disposal, and the somewhat 
turbulent character of the natives, I thought it better not 
to do so, just, at that time, fearing to throw difficulties 
in Mr. Stanley's path, should I involve myself in an 
altercation with the natives, when he was trusting that 
everything ' would go smoothly, with time, patience, and 
a pacific bearing towards these iiripulsive Congo tribes. 

I had intended, however, to spend some two months at 
Bolobo, and use it as a centre for collecting and making 
observations on anthropology ; but various considerations 
impelled me to prefer Msuata for these ends, especially as 
that spot, from its position, is just at the meeting-place 
of three interesting races, the Ba-yansi, the Ba-teke, and 
the Wa-buma, while at Bolobo you have merely Ba-yansi. 
Then also, at Bolobo the food supply was scanty and 
variable, whereas at Msuata the commissariat was more 
skilfully managed ; and finally — and perhaps this was the 
reason that most affected my choice — the mosquitoes at 
Bolobo reiidered life unbearable, and Mauata^ happy place, 



was exempt from th a j.lague So I finally decided to 
ret r in the boat wh ci hi 1 bro ht n e and which was 



A p! ball 

jnak n ta wiy ba k ti. 
Stanley P ol Let 
Orban, the late chief oi \w Bb j'/j 
Bolobo station, was my 
travelling companion a.s 
far as I went, and onr 
short journey togethei ot tliieedijs U 
Msuata — we tcok ]Hst half the time 
descending the river thit we hid taken 
to ascend — proved mist agiei,\hlL ind 
amusing. 
On the first evening after leaving "BoVoYioNift a\R.Y^'£&- ^"^ 



178 A JOUBNBY VP THE ttlVER CONGO. 

a village called Itimba, a little below Chumbiri's town, 
near the point where the Congo begins to narrow down 
from a breadth of nine or ten miles to a few hundred 
yards. Here, at Itimba, we found the people just about 
to proceed to the obsequies of a dead fellow-townsman, an 
old man, apparently of some standing. The chief and his 
subjects were in great perplexity. Of late years it has 
become *' de rigueur," since guns were introduced into the 
Upper Congo regions, to fire a salute over the body of a 
defunct person, especially if he be of any distinction ; and 
the inhabitants of this village, possessing only one pitiful 
old flintlock amongst them, and that terribly out of repair, 
were hesitating, when we arrived, as to what course they 
should pursue — whether they should charge and fire this 
one dilapidated gun and risk its bursting, or whether the 
deceased should be allowed to wend his way to the land 
of spirits unhonoured and unsaluted. Seeing their per- 
plexity. Lieutenant Orban volunteered to fire a round of 
twenty cartridges from his *' Winchester." The chief and 
people were delighted. Could there be greater honour for 
the deceased than to receive his farewell salute at the 
hands of a white man, with his wonderful gun from 
Mptito — the mysterious region beyond the sea — the un- 
known — perhaps heaven itself? (" for are not these white 
men sons of heaven ? ") So thought the old chief, as he 
led us to see the corpse, with an earnest, pleading tone, he 
took our hands in his, and said, " Oh you, who are going 
home ! " — and he pointed to the pale and peaceful evening 
sky — " you will send him back to us, wiU you not ? you 
will tell him his hut is waiting for him, his wives will 
prepare his manioc white as cotton-cloth, and there shall 
be malafu in plenty, and a goat killed. You will send 
him back will you not?" This expression of feeling 
quite took us by surprise. Ordinarily the African chief 
is so stolid, so thoroughly material, that one never expects 
from him anything like sentiment or poetical ideas. We 
tried as gently as possible — for he appealed to both of us 
in bis distress — to explain at once our utter inability to 
reanimate this hideous corpse vjiWi \i\ve bY^^.th of life, and 



MBUATA, 179 

to eticotttage him with vague hopes that all was not in 
vain, but he shook his grizzled head sadly at the confession 
of our poweiiessness face to face with death. 

The body of the dead man had been previously smoked 
and dried over a slow fire, so that the flesh, except upon 
the hands, was shrunken and reduced to a leathery 
covering round the gaunt bones. The face had been 
gaudily painted with scarlet, yellow and white pigments, 
and the whole body was encrusted with the red dye of the 
camwood tree. Eound the nose and mouth was wrapped 
a band of cloth, and gay-patterned cottons swathed the 
body. For some reason the hands were quite plump and 
well covered with flesh, as if in life. The dead man had 
been placed in his grave in a sitting posture, many layers 
of native cloth lying under him, and ready to cover him 
up on the top were piles of cotton stuffs received in trade 
from the far-off coast, and representing to these natives 
a considerable amount of wealth. In the vague, half- 
determined notions which the people here have conceived 
as to a future existence, everything in the Spirit "World 
is supposed to be a pale copy of things existing on the 
earth, so that for this reason they put cloth, vessels of 
pottery, and, in the case of a chief, dead slaves into the 
graves, in order that the deceased, on arriving in the land 
of shades, may not appear unprovided with the necessary 
means of making a fresh start in a new life. 

The grave in which this man was buried had been dug 
in a hut, and the head of the corpse was not more than 
two feet below the surface. "We could not ascertain 
whether the hut, or rather house — for it was a substantial 
building of poles and thatch — would be abandoned or not. 
I fancy not, as it is only in the case of a chief that this is 
done ; and the man that was dead, although he died rich 
and influential, was, after all, only the favourite slave of 
the chief. 

In this village many skulls were stuck on the top of the 
houses. They were those of mis-doers, we were told, who 
had been slain by the fetish-man for their crimes, and 
their skulls were thus exposed iox \!cvfc ^^\SiSi\i^^^ss^ ^^ 



180 A JOURNEY VP The EtVER CONGO. 

others. If this was the sole explanation of an epidemic 
of cranial adornment which seemed to have broken out 
all over the village, on every house, then there must have 
been a corresponding epidemic of crime amongst the 
inhabitants ; but I think there were other causes, such as 
recent wars, which would help to account for these grim 
appurtenances to house decoration. One man, indeed, 
admitted to me that the two skulls he possessed were 
those of two slaves whose throats he had cut for some 
grievous offence on their part. 

Out of mere fun, we asked if they would sell us some of 
these crania, knowing the horror that these people have of 
parting with any human remains, and expecting a decided 
refusal. To our surprise, however, they immediately 
asked a certain price, which was afterwards reduced to 
three brass rods for each skull, at which rate two were 
soon bought, and more might probably have been pro- 
cured if we had cared to stop and bargain, for now that 
the people found their osteological collections of any value 
they hastened to realize them, and brought us, besides 
skulls, all manner of odds and ends of bones, few of which, 
however, were of any value. Many would have jumped 
to the conclusion that we were here in some cannibal 
country, merely because of the abundance of human 
remains in this village, but I do not think there is the 
slightest foundation for such an accusation. In many 
villages — in fact in nearly all the villages hereabouts — 
there are bones of animals or men stuck about under the 
trees or in the fetish huts for various complicated reasons 
of religion, of boastfulness, and perhaps also fear — fear of 
the avenging manes of the departed who might wreak 
vengeance on his slayers, did they not hold his bones as a 
security for good behaviour. When we got on terms of 
intimacy with the natives of Itimba — it takes a very sliort 
time to win the confidence of these simple peoi)le' — I 
asked some of them confidentially if they ever eat man, 
proffering the inquiry with tissumed carelessness, so that 
if they miglit feel any false shame in admitting this addi- 
tion to their diet, they would be reassured by my freedom 



MA8UTA, 181 

from prejudice, and confess. At first, however, they did 
not clearly understand me, but when, by more vigorous 
pantomime and better chosen terms, I had made my 
meaning plainer, they repelled the suggestion with the 
utmost horror, replying to my interrogation an emphatic 
" Fe, ve^ ve" {''No, tw, nOy"), and then adding a timid 
inquiry, " Na Baio ? " (" And you ? do you ? ") 

Ere this excitement about the skulls was over, fresh 
objects of interest arrived in the shape of some splendid 
fish that had just been caught. We bought the lot, and I 
sat down by candlelight to make a drawing of the biggest. 
He measured 3 ft. 7 in. in length, and a fuller description 
of him will be found in Chapter XIII. 

Eound this village, Itimba, there were many fine 
clumps of Euphorbia growing, probably Euphxyi^hia Her- 
meniiana, apparently protected and encouraged by the 
inhabitants, who appear to have some superstitious, or 
perhaps practical, liking for these curious prickly plants. 
It is strange that although these Euphorbias are found in 
nearly all West African villages, they should yet, as far as 
I have noticed, be absent from the wild uncultivated 
country. Can they be a semi-domesticated species that is 
carried from village to village, either from some super- 
stitious preference, or to form protective hedges, or because 
they furnish some useful product, such as a poisonous 
juice, or a fibrous matter ? 

The next morning we stopped at that pleasant little 
village called Mbongo, where I had been before so well 
received. The people greeted me quite enthusiastically ; 
and although there was no malafu, they brought sugar- 
cane in abundance. I obtained here a curious little river 
tortoise, a species of Trionyx provided with a soft and 
flexible shell and a quaint little proboscis. 

We camped out for the night at a village of Ba-yansi, 
called Mukemo, or " the Little," though it must have 
evidently changed since its name was first given, for it 
was large, spacious and populous. The houses were well 
built, and the open squares clean and swept, and ^ariv\at\ft5k 
with handsonje trees. The peopVe \?et^ Sxi \Xv^ \i<^^\i ^^ 



182 



A JOUSNEl' UP THE lilVER COtfOO. 



tempers, for a drinking-bout of malafu had just taken 
place; and though the chief was nearly dead drunk, liia 
subjects had merely taken sufficient to raise their spirits 
and set their tongues going. They led ua up to the place 
where the chief and his principal men were sitting on 
mats, with jars of palm wine round them, and slaves 
serving it out into a cracked tumbler and a battered tin. 
We were obliged to drink two glasses each as a testimony 
of good-will. I say " obliged," though the obligation was 
by no means unpleasant, for the malafu, made from the 



Ui 









■4*.fc 



THE BHOBE i 



sap of the Hyphcene palm, was most delicious and re- 
freshing, and, moreover, as strong as good beer. The chief 
here possessed a eat, which was regarded somewhat as a 
curiosity by the natives. It was the first I had ever seen 
in a Ba-yanai village, although I believe this local scarcity 
was merely accidental, for the domestic cat is fairly 
abundant in West Africa. 

Many of the children in this place were suffering 

from whooping-cough, and during the night made much 

disturbance with their screaming coughs and fretful 

cries. 

. The ne^t day we passed tiiB to^cra:^ qijJX^V— i^'^'^lj. 



MSUATJ. 183 

blocked by sand-banks — of the Lawson or Alima * river, 
on the western bank of the Congo, and then came in view 
of the great Kwa Eiver, finally passing the point of 
Ganchu, and its dangerous curront, and arriving at Msnata 
towards noon. Here Janssen gave us his usual hearty 
welcome and good cheer, and here I proceeded to settle 
down with my three Zanzibaris into comfortable quarters, 
looking forward to a long rest after my tiring journeys. 
Orban bade us farewell at Msuata. He was going on in 
the boat to Stanley Pool, and intended to regain the coast 
in order to recruit his health. Msuata has many ad- 
vantages as a centre of study, as a place to spend a few 
months of research in Natural History subjects. It is 
fairly healthy, well provided with good native food — 
eighty fowls can, if necessary, be bought in one day from 
the surrounding villages — the scenery in the environs is 
pretty and accessible, while the kindly natives leave 
nothing to desire either for amiability or gentle demeanour. 

Life was pleasantly monotonous, but although the 
programme of my day was almost unvarying in its 
arrangement, the details of each branch of study offered 
continual novelty and change, and, in the same sense that 
" happy are the people who have no history," so, although 
no wonderful adventures or marvellous occurrences hap- 
pened to me here, I yet look back on these six weeks passed 
at Msuata as the happiest time I have known in Africa. 

" Zes jotirs s'ecoulent ct se resscmblent,^' and the detailed 
description of the way one day was spent at this station 
will serve as a history of the remaining forty-one, with 
the few rare or exceptional incidents inserted. 

My daily life begins at about half-past iive, when I 
become dimly conscious that the curtain covering the 
doorway of my room is no longer opaque, but that a 
cold bright light is filtering through. Then I notice the 
strange silence: the crickets have suddenly ceased their 
exasperating " creek, creek creek," which has been going 
on all night, and there is a slight pause in nature between 

* It was down this river that De Brazza came when he \outtift^^<i^ 
from the Upper Ogow6 to the Congo» 



182 A JOURNEY UP THE HIVEE CONGO. 

tempers, for a drinking-bout of malafii had just talien 
place ; and though the chief was nearly dead drunk, his 
subjects had merely taken sufficient to raise their spirits 
and set tlieir tongues going. They led us up to the place 
where the chief and his principal men were sitting on 
mats, with jars of palm wine round them, and slaves 
serving it out into a cracked tumbler and a battered tin. 
We were obliged to drink two glasses each as a testimony 
of good-will. I say " obliged," though the obligation was 
by no means unpleasant, for the malafu, made from the 



THE BHOBE AT HnKEUO. 

sap of the Hyphcene palm, was most delicious and re- 
freshing, and, moreover, as strong as good beer. The chief 
here possessed a cat, which was regarded somewhat as a 
curiosity by the natives. It was the first I bad ever seen 
in a Ba-yansi village, although I believe this local scarcity 
was merely accidental, for the domestic cat is fairly 
abundant in West Africa. 

Many of the children in this place were suffering 

from whooping-cough, and during the night made much 

disturbance with their screaming coughs and fretful 

criea. 

. The ae^cE day we ^sed the Vfi^too^!L^ wjju^f— TWi<i!j, 



MSUATJ. 183 

blocked by sand-banks-^of the Lawson or Alima * river, 
on the westeru bank of the Congo, and then came in view 
of the great Kwa Eiver, finally passing the point of 
Ganchu, and its dangerous currant, and arriving at Msuata 
towards noon. Here Janssen gave us his usual hearty 
welcome and good cheer, and here I proceeded to settle 
down with my three Zanzibaris into comfortable quarters, 
looking forward to a long rest after my tiring journeys. 
Orban bade us farewell at Msuata. He was going on in 
the boat to Stanley Pool, and intended to regain the coast 
in order to recruit his health. Msuata has many ad- 
vantages as a centre of study, as a place to spend a few 
months of research in Natural History subjects. It is 
fairly healthy, well provided with good native food — 
eighty fowls can, if necessary, be bought in one day from 
the surrounding villages — the scenery in the environs is 
pretty and accessible, while the kindly natives leave 
nothing to desire either for amiability or gentle demeanour. 

Life was pleasantly monotonous, but although the 
programme of my day was almost unvarying in its 
arrangement, the details of each branch of study offered 
continual novelty and change, and, in the same sense that 
" happy are the people who have no history," so, although 
no wonderful adventures or marvellous occurrences hap- 
pened to me here, I yet look back on these six weeks passed 
at Msuata as the happiest time I have known in Africa. 

" Zes jours s'ecoulent et se ressemblent,^' and the detailed 
description of the way one day was spent at this station 
will serve as a history of the remaining forty-one, with 
the few rare or exceptional incidents inserted. 

My daily life begins at about half-past five, when I 
become dimly conscious that the curtain covering the 
doorway of my room is no longer opaque, but that a 
cold bright light is filtering through. Then I notice the 
strange silence : the crickets have suddenly ceased their 
exasperating " creek, creek creek," which has been going 
on all night, and there is a slight pause in nature between 

* It was down this river that De Brazza came when he \o\itiift75^«iw 
from the Upper Ogow6 to the Congo, 



182 



A JOnRNET VP THE TtlVER CONGO. 



tempers, for a driiiking-ljout of malafu had just taken 
place; and tliough the chief waa nearly dead drunk, his 
subjects had merely taken sufficient to raise tlieir spirits 
and set their tongues going. They led us up to the place 
where the chief and his principal men were sitting on 
mats, mth jars of palm wine round them, and slaves 
serving it out into a cracked tumbler and a battered tin. 
We were obliged to drink two glasses each as a testimony 
of good-will. I say " obliged," though the obligation was 
by no means unpleasant, for the malafu, made from the 




sap of the Hyphcene palm, was most delicious and re- 
freshing, and, moreover, as strong as good beer. The chief 
here possessed a cat, which was regarded somewhat as a 
curiosity by the natives. It was the first I had ever seen 
in a Ba-yansi village, although I believe this local scarcity 
was merely accidental, for the domestic cat is fairly 
abundant in West Africa. 

Many of the children in this place were suffering 

from whooping-cough, and during the night made much 

disturbance with their screaming coughs and fretful 

cries. 

, The next day we passed ttxe \>OT^i^^o^!l9, w^f^j— ■vij.iaaj^ 



MSUATJ. 183 

blocked by sand-banks — of the Lawson or Alima * river, 
on the western bank of the Congo, and then came in view 
of the great Kwa Eiver, finally passing the point of 
Ganchu, and its dangerous curront, and arriving at Msuata 
towards noon. Here Janssen gave us his usual hearty 
welcome and good cheer, and here I proceeded to settle 
down with my three Zanzibaris into comfortable quarters, 
looking forward to a long rest after my tiring journeys. 
Orban bade us farewell at Msuata. He was going on in 
the boat to Stanley Pool, and intended to regain the coast 
in order to recruit his health. Msuata has many ad- 
vantages as a centre of study, as a place to spend a few 
months of research in Natural History subjects. It is 
fairly healthy, well provided with good native food — 
eighty fowls can, if necessary, be bought in one day from 
the surrounding villages — the scenery in the environs is 
pretty and accessible, while the kindly natives leave 
nothing to desire either for amiability or gentle demeanour. 

Life was pleasantly monotonous, but although the 
programme of my day was almost unvarying in its 
arrangement, the details of each branch of study offered 
continual novelty and change, and, in the same sense that 
" happy are the people who have no history," so, although 
no wonderful adventures or marvellous occurrences hap- 
pened to me here, I yet look back on these six weeks passed 
at Msuata as the happiest time I have known in Africa. 

" Zes jours s*ecoulent et se ressemblenty' and the detailed 
description of the way one day was spent at this station 
will serve as a history of the remaining forty-one, with 
the few rare or exceptional incidents inserted. 

My daily life begins at about half-past five, when I 
become dimly conscious that the curtain covering the 
doorway of my room is no longer opaque, but that a 
cold bright light is filtering through. Then I notice the 
strange silence : the crickets have suddenly ceased their 
exasperating " creek, creek creek," which has been going 
on all night, and there is a slight pause in nature between 

* It was down this river that De Brazza came when he ^outvift^^iiw 
from the Upper Ogowd to the Congo, 



184 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

the noises of darkness and light. The silence does not 
last long, for the turtle-doves begin to coo in the adjoining 
woods, and a flock of grey parrots passes over my roof 
with loud whistles and gay chuckles of merriment. A 
shrill chorus of twittering weaver-birds and wax-bills 
arises from the grass fields, the cuckoos laugh from tree to 
tree, and up from the river comes the metallic cry of the 
spur-winged plovers. It is day, and a thin streak of 
sunshine steals in through the gap between the curtain 
and the door-post, and cuts right across my mosquito 
curtain like a golden sword. I hesitate no longer ; the 
sloth of night has passed, and I impatiently long for 
freshness and eager work. Lifting off the muslin which 
has secured me immunity all night from moSquito bites, 
I somewhat ungratefully fling it into a corner, and pulling 
aside the curtain which has veiled my doorless doorway, 
I step out into the fresh, even chilly morning air, and call 
loudly " Faraji we 1 *' Faraji, who is just winding his 
turban round his head and putting on his slight raiment 
after the river bath which has left him glistening, comes 
with docile haste to my room, and helps me to perform my 
hasty toilet. Then the curtain is looped up over the wide 
doorway, and the yellow sunlight fills the room, and shows 
up all sorts of queer creatures that have been my near 
companions in the night. Large blue-black velvety 
spiders are revealed on the clay wall, a pretty lizard darts 
under the bed, while all around on the matted floor, on 
the walls, on the boxes are seated the odious qnilli, the 
crickets A^hose chirping has so wearied and annoyed me in 
the hours of wakefulness. However, I leave Faraji to 
disperse and slay these creatures — always excepting the 
lizard, who is quite unobjectionable, and the spider, who 
eats so many flies — and I go to the breakfast-table in the 
next room — our salle a manger — to await the arrival of 
my host, Janssen. Suddenly he comes in, not from his 
bedroom, but from the outer piazza. There is rage in his 
face mingled with a fierce longing for vengeance. I 
divine the truth — Another leopard has been whilst we 
j3 J umbered, and another milch goal \a Totfo^i ^ovsx tlvQ 



MSUA TA. 185 

fold — Noy it is worse, three of our four milk-providers 
have been strangled, anij the fourth is going about 
bleeding at the neck and baaing piteously. This is 
indeed a disaster, but after all it has occurred several 
times before, so we sit down to our breakfast and discuss 
with resignation the best mode of setting a trap for the 
depredator. When the meal is finished, Janssen goes to 
review the men and settle the routine of work for the day, 
and I, with Faraji, Mafta, and Imbono, start for a morn- 
ing's ramble in the river-side forest. Perhaps for that 
end I cross the Congo, for on the northern bank the 
country is almost an uninhabited wilderness, wholly 
given up to nature in parts. We go, then, to the clayey 
shore, below the station, and loose from its moorings a 
native canoe, a '' dug-out," perhaps fifteen feet in length 
and three feet in its greatest width. But before embark- 
ing the sky is carefully scanned to ascertain the probable 
state of the weather for the next few hours, for should a 
storm be threatening it would be madness to adventure 
ourselves on the river. If the verdict be " set fair,'* we 
enter the canoe, the men take the paddles, and the wobbly 
craft, with a disagreeable rocking motion from side to 
side, that brings either edge in turn on a level with 
the water, proceeds to make way laboriously up-stream. 
We coast along past the landing-place of the village of 
Msuata, or Gobila as it is sometimes called, after its chief, 
where all the natives' canoes are drawn up on the beach 
or fastened to piles rising out of the water, and where 
many little children are playing the innocent, imaginative 
games common to all childkind, while a few of their 
elders are fishing or making ready to set out on a journey ; 
past the banana groves skirting the groups of yellow- 
thatched houses, then along the great river-fronting wall 
of forest, where the sprawling, untidy calamus palms 
clamber up over the noble eriodendron trees, untidy and 
irregular in their means of ascent, but endowed with an 
indefatigable ambition to be at the top of everything. 
Then we reach a certain dead tree lying ^tow^ qj^ ^2sNfc 
ghpre, with its leafless branches aUeVci)Q!«i?,^5LY«'Kt\^ s^^^xv^^ 



186 A JOURNEY UP TBE BIVER CONGO, 

pathetically, crowned with small water-birds, and here, 
turning at this land-mark, we proceed to strike away 
across the Congo for a little cove or inlet nearly opposite 
Msuata. Owing to the force of the current we have to 
row a mile and a half up-stream to be able to land at the 
place desired, and allow for the inevitable descent of the 
canoe. When we leave the shore to cross as rapidly as 
may be the broad Congo, it is always a time of some 
anxiety. Before we are out of the shallows a hippopota- 
mus may come and wreck us, or once in the terrible mid- 
current, where the waves are leaping over each other, a 
wind storm may suddenly capsize our unstable bark. 
However, the further shore comes nearer and nearer, and 
we at length enter the quiet little bay for which we have 
steered, where there is a placid backwater shielded by a 
spit of forest. Here the canoe is tied to a fallen tree, and 
the tent is put up on the beach to protect the heavier 
baggage, and our hatteHe de cuisine . from the sun, whilst 
we, leaving Mafta behind to commence preparations for 
the mid-day meal, with eager haste on my part leave the 
open beach of white sand, and following an elephant path, 
plunge into the cool forest. 

In England I am a fire-worshipper ; in the tropics I 
adore the trees. My heart goes out to the erring (?) 
Jews of old who " built them high places and images and 
groves, on every high hill and under every green tree," 
and who, in spite of occasional iconoclastic or " dendro- 
clastic" rulers who arose and cut down the groves, 
relapsed repeatedly from their harsher, sterner, desert faith 
— the faith of Job and the modern Bedouin — into the 
softer cult of towering, shade-giving trees. The Forest is 
most to be appreciated in the Lands of the Sun, where its 
cool green gloom contrasts so soothingly with the hard, 
white heat in the open. So we follow the elephant's track 
with careful steps and slow, avoiding crackling twigs and 
thorny branches and ant-infested shrubs. The less noise 
we make in this arcana of wild things, the more shall we 
see of its higher life. Sh ! — listen, what was that ? A 
series of crashes in the forest ioVXo^ m^ ^^t^ , iV^u g. 



M8UATA. 187 

rustling of leaves. Faraji pulls me by the sleeve and 
whispers, " Tembo, bwana, tem))o." Then in the direction 
in which he points I see through the stems and the creeper- 
stallcs a grey mass. It is an elephant, who, whether he 
hears us or no, calmly goes on feeding. We somewhat 
tremblingly continue on our road amid the noise of creak- 
ing, breaking boughs and swishing leaves, quite resolved 
to leave the elephant alone ; for of what avail would my 
little bird-gun be against his hide or bony skull ? Here 
the path becomes pitted with great round water-holes 
where the elephant's feet have sunk into the soft soil and 
the rain has filled the depressions. Already these pools of a 
day swarm with life. Little striped toads squat on their 
margins, myriads of glancing water-beetles and water- 
spiders skim the surface, and in the muddy depths there 
seem to be many wriggling indefinite creatures. Another 
warning pull from Faraji. I look up above my head and 
see a dark blot in the maze of twigs. It is some big bird, 
so I fire my little " collector's " gun and down it comes 
with many a flop and a temporary stoppage in the forks of 
branches, until it falls an inanimate lump in the herbage 
at my feet. It is a great prize — the beautiful Blue 
Plantain-eater,* a bird remarkable for lovely plumage 
and high comestible qualities. Following the report of 
the gun, is a momentary panic among the denizens of the 
woods. The elephant is heard retreating through the 
forest alleys, many birds call loudly and indignantly from 
their unseen posts of vantage — the fisliing-eagles giving 
vent to almost hysterical screams and the cuckoos cynically 
laughing — and for a while the spell of peace is rudely 
broken. But crimes are soon buried and forgotten in the 
forest, and everything after the momentary pause of sur- 
prised attention goes on feeding, fighting, or making love. 
Slowly we traverse this belt of woodland until we have 
crossed the little peninsula that divides us from our 
landing place. Now we emerge quietly on a tiny bay or 
sound between two promontories that end in a green, 
grassy headland. Here is a study to make which re^ea.t«. 

* Schizorhis gigantea \ f ot \\WVxSk\.ViTi cA V^'^^ ^ssA w^3^^ "^ft^. 
pbapter iiv^ 



188 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

itself throughout the Congo scenery. A line of forest 
reflected in the still water, an old, gnarled, and withered 
tree-trunk in the foreground, half in the ooze, half high 
and dry above, on the white sand. If you do not approach 
too near, you may see the crocodiles lying under the 
boughs of the fallen tree, their mouths gaping open from 
sheer listlessness, "and their bodies motionless in the 
warm shallow water, or basking and baking in the open 
sunlight, the whole creature revelling in the pleasure 
of dolcefar niente. Then above, about, and around them, 
a multitude of lovely forms, water-birds and waders 
standing fearlessly pluming themselves regardless of 
the crocodiles, with whom they must make a compact, 
a mutual alliance. The crocodiles agree not to eat the 
birds, and the birds keep a good look out to warn the 
crocodiles by loud cries when their only enemy, man, is 
coming. I have observed this strange intimacy between 
these very dissimilar creatures on all African rivers. How 
the advent of man must have re-acted on the relations 
between many of the higher forms of vertebrate life, 
compelling them almost to subordinate their own pre- 
existing fears, quarrels and rapacities to the common dread 
of the universal enemy ! Whom could the crocodiles have 
feared before this abnormal ape took to slaying instead of 
being slain ? From the day that the first Protanthropos 
flung a stone at, or jabbed a sharp reed into a crocodile's 
eye, this strange intimacy for mutual defence must have 
sprung up between the crocodile and the shore-frequenting 
birds. So, on the withered tree-trunk, and on the many 
twisted snaggs that rise above the water, perch the egrets, 
the bitterns, the herons, and the darters. Fat pelicans 
lounge on the oozy margin of the river's wavelets, spur- 
winged and Egyptian geese stand in little groups on the 
sand, and Zikzak plovers, with yellow wattle and spurs 
to their wings, hop on the crocodiles* bodies, and, if they 
do not, as some suppose, pick the teeth, they at any rate 
linger strangely, and, as one would think, rashly, round 
the jaws of the grim saurians. 
Ab I Faraji, you have broken ttie ^pe\i\ ^^^^x^^Xfe^ V3 ^ 
sudden inroad of black ants over laia un^ioX^eoX,^ ^^\i.>V^ 



MBUATA. 191 

has loudly smacked a limb that has been smartly bitten 
by the great mandibles of these headstrong insects. The 
charm has vanished, the picture is dispersed. The egrets 
and the herons are flying to far-off shores, the pelicans 
flop into the water, and thence scutter away, half swimming, 
half flying, till they are out of sight, while the outraged 
plovers, with their loud, almost human cry, wake up the 
crocodiles, and, having seen their friends glide smoothly 
into the deep, they address a few more invectives to our 
party, and then flap their black-and-white wings over the 
water to a point further along the shore, where they fold 
their attractive pinions under modest grey wing-coverts, 
and strut about the beach in self-satisfied conceit at having 
baulked the slaughterous propensities of those odious men. 
However, the suiToundings of this bird and crocodile 
grouping still remain, and are worth studying in them- 
selves. There is the fallen tree in the foreground, in 
sharply contrasted light and dark, and beneath it the 
yellow sand and green ooze. Then the stretch of tranquil 
water, reflecting first the variegated sky with its cloud 
effects of iron-grey and snowy white dappled with patches 
of bright blue — the tone of the red sandy bottom shining 
warmly through this reflection in the shallows —and 
beyond, the glassy reproduction of the wall of forest in the 
middle distance, which but for the occasional scratches of 
silvery white where the light breeze ruffles the water, 
would seem as real as the reality above it. In the actual 
forest, although it is separated from you by a few hundred 
yards of river, much detail may be observed in the clear 
noon-day sunlight. There are the purple depths of shade 
and the glowing masses of yellow-green foliage ; there are 
the white skeletons of dead and leafless trees and the 
fanciful trellis -work of emerald-green calamus palms, 
trailing their disorderly fronds over the water's edge and 
curving their prying, impertinent heads into every gulf of 
vegetation, and peeping over the tops of the highest trees. 
Beyond the forest, the background is the sky, and what 
a heaven it is to gaze at! In Africa, during the rainy 
season^ the cloudscapes are pictvxiea m \!afc\s:^^^<^^. "T^^^^ 
noble masses of vapour Yrhicb. \>^^va \xl \Ivq^ ^^^^'^ ^ 



192 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

blue-grey over the sharp horizon of the Congo, gradually 
lift themselves up, throw out wings and limbs, and while 
their dark bellies stretch away in exaggerated perspective 
till they vanish into haze, their great snowy heads and 
shining arms expand over the heavens as if they would, in 
their rapacity, conquer and swallow all the cerulean blue. 
Then in their moments of proudest development they 
break up like unwieldy empires. One province after 
another deserts and floats away into independence, and 
the one great cloud that erewhile occupied three-quarters 
of the sky gives birth to many cloudlets, each with a dark 
grey body and a white border, and these in their divisions 
and separations let the sunlight pierce their ranks through 
and through with many darts and broad-swords of gold, 
and thus, thoroughly disorganised and disunited, the 
cloud titans are swept from off the blue heavens by their 
fickle friend, the wind, and for a while the sky is empty 
and serene. But not for long : as I am eating my lunch 
under the shade of the palm groves, the air becomes 
stifling ; over the water is a shimmering reverberation of 
heat, the crocodiles on the distant banks positively gasp 
for breath with expanded jaws, the flies forget to bite, the 
birds and the insects cease their chirping — there is an 
awful silence. Something is goiug to happen, and every- 
thing anunate is conscious of the suspense and the 
impending struggle. Faraji comes to my retreat, and, 
pointing to the Ime of open water where the Congo meets 
the sky, his finger indicates a faint purplish nebula or haze 
which is shapeless and yet has limits to its small extent. 
It is the avant garde of an awful army, the real trained 
hosts of the storm-fiend, who in his struggle for the empire 
of the bky now puts forth his utmost strength. The former 
clouds were but a slight skirmishing force in comparison, 
and the Zanzibaris, my weather guides, paid no attention 
to their movements, but now they all come to me, although 
the sky is a hard, unsulUed blue, save for the purplish 
stain near tlie eastern horizon, and say with emphasis, 
*' liain is coming." 
Fearing to be cut off from Msuata b^ \,\i^ ^Y^\o^Q,\!d.u^ 
storm for the remaining houra o£ day\i^\:)> ^xiSl ^^^^^'e* 



MBUATA. 193 

have to pass a night in the damp and dripping woods, 
our one thought is to take advantage of a brief spell of 
immunity and cross the Congo before the elements can 
hinder our progress. So the sketching materials are 
hastily put together, the tent is taken down and rolled up, 
the remainder of the lunch is left to the ants and birds, 
and rapidly unmooring the canoe, we paddle out from our 
little tranquil harbour into the open Congo. How the 
storm grows! In five minutes the haze has become a 
black, densely-packed ridge of clouds along the horizon. 
The extreme edge of the water tells out against the dark 
cloud-bank in ominous white: still there is time. We 
paddle with feverish energy — yes, 'ive, for I, too, strive to 
increase the speed with measured strokes. Shall we never 
cross the mile- wide stream ? 

See, the artillery is beginning. It flashes and blazes 
fitfully in the far distance. As yet all is still. We see 
the light niug but do not hear the thunder. The water is 
like solid glass ; to our right it is still smilingly, vacuously 
blue, but storm- wards it has become a sullen grey, ever 
deepeniug in tint. Ah, there is the thunder, beginning in 
a low muttering with occasional isolated pops and reports 
like single shots. A third of the sky is now filled with a 
pall of uniformly black-grey cloud, quite unbroken save 
by one small, whitish fleck that to a fanciful eye might 
seem a general on a white horse directing the movements 
of the vast compact hosts. The edge of the storm-cloud 
is torn, irregular, harried, aud is fast stretching with dis- 
ordered outline over our heads. Now comes a splendid 
coruscation, a dazzling blaze of lightning over the face of 
the cloud, followed by a perfect roar of thunder that 
makes us unconsciously tremble. 

The hour of danger is fast approaching, but, save for the 
steady advance of the storm, nothing moves in nature. 
The water is unruffled, the foliage of the nearer shore is 
unstirred by any breath of air. We have done three- 
quarters of the journey, can we accomplish the rest un^ 
harmed ? Ah, no ! too late — the Wind is coming, and 
Faraji, catching sight of the distant ^^\^"&,%^^^^^sA^S5^\s^S!^ 
breath, " Ob Muhamtnad, 0\i 1?io1p\ia\. ^l Q^^$i.> ^"^^^ "^^'^ 



194 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

It is on us, it is here ! The men lie down cowering in the 
boat that they may offer no resistance to the fearful blast 
which all but overturns the canoe, and hurls on to us the 
white-capped waves which leap one over tlie other in their 
anxiety to swamp us. Still, from their crouching posture 
the men dig the paddles into the water, and seem to carve 
a way to the fast-approaching shore, aided somewhat by 
the wind which is sweeping us thither. Shall we escape ? 
It seems unlikely. A great hissing wall of rain advances 
towards us over the river, envelops, surrounds, and well- 
nigh overwhelms us. I feel crushed by the mass of water, 
my breath is gone, I am beaten into the trough of the 
canoe where the men lie exhausted, without other feelings 
than stolid resignation. 

I can distinguish nothing in the blinding rain, but I 
think I hear a despairing voice quite close. Suddenly w^e 
bump on a log and find ourselves stranded on the shore, 
driven thither by the wind, and at last in safety. The 
men jump out with expressions of devout thankfulness to 
their prophet, and Janssen is clutching me by the hand to 
drag me up the slimy bank, full of congratulations at our 
escape. All is well that ends well. In Africa dangers 
incurred are soon forgotten. When I have changed my 
clothes and had some hot coffee, I feel nothing more dis- 
agreeable than a glow from the dousing of cold rain, and 
almost forget that half an hour ago I thought myself 
doomed to feed the crocodiles of the Congo. As I am 
sipping my coffee, too, and chatting with Janssen about 
the leopard of last night and the means of shooting him, 
I notice in the glimpses of sky that are framed by the 
windows indications of approaching peace. The storm- 
fiend, raised by the sun, is conquered by that luminary, 
and his ragged battalions, torn and rent, are being driven 
off by the changeable wind, a fickle coadjutor that ever 
turns against you in the hour of defeat. Soon there is 
calm. The sun glancing radiantly in the rain-pools, lights 
up a somewhat tearful scene, and the ground is strewn 
with leaves, branches, debris of the forest carried hither 
and thither by the wind. 
The later aftemoon is mellow axidi ftu.^^ Tcvs^ \s. ^ 



M8UATA, 195 

delicious freshness in the air, the sky is a pale washed-out 
blue, and the descending sun brings out all the forest 
background in exaggerated relief. 

We put on our thick boots and set off on a walk to the 
village. The path is not only marshy in parts, but even 
crosses positive lagoons, through which the Zanzibaris 
carry us on tlieir backs. This watery condition of the 
route is owing to the recent heavy rainfiiU. As we enter 
the village and the first few people catch sight of us, the 
whole population is soon around us, shrieking out a 
welcome. " Susu Mpembe wa Bui ! " * they scream, 
announcing us to their chief, Gobila, who is seated in front 
of his house, in a little private square, picking over the 
remains of an old flint-lock gun. Gobila greets us with 
many grins and Mbotes, and extends a fat paw to be 
shaken. He is a man of about forty, but looks older. 
His figure was once fine and stalwart, but latterly, owing 
to a more slothful existence and good living, he has 
become too fat. His face is not unhandsome. He has 
good clear eyes, a straightish nose, perfect teeth, save for 
tlie artificial chipping of the two middle incisors, a slight 
moustache and a peaked beard. His bull-neck is a column 
of strength, but there are wrinkles of fat in the nape. 
His arms are immense and tempt you to pinch them, a 
pleasantly which makes him — for he is of a sunny nature 
— roar with laughter. Gobila has almost pendant breasts 
like a woman, a thing constantly seen in these middle- 
aged men, and liis thighs are somewhat misshapen with 
obesity. But for this full habit of body he appears a 
stately man, and in spite of his love of joking has a certain 
dignity of manner. Gobila does not like me verj/ much — 
not half as much as Janssen. He cannot understand why 
I am always asking questions, why my black " stick *' is 
always making marks on pieces of " cloth " (writing), why 
I gather herbs (unless for magic), and why I am anxious 
to take his portrait. This latter attempt has been a great 

* The " white fowl" and the "spidtr," the native names of Janssen 
and myself. Janssen was called tlie " white fowl,'* {v>t %w£vfc ^V'^xsct'ek 
Ttaso)), and 1 was nicknamed ihe *' »\)i^ev^'' *^ V>LC»Ma*i Y '^^s* ^Hiv^^ 
catching insects," 



196 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

source of contention between us. When I first visited the 
chief of Msuata, I took advantage of the impression 
produced by my " present " to extract from him an un- 
willing promise to sit to me as a model. I arrived on the 
succeeding day with all my implements of magic, and 
poor, fat, trembling Gobila had to sit in immobility before 
me on a square of matting. The constant lifting of my 
eye from the paper and the way I scanned his features 
so disconcerted him, that after the first few minutes of 
the sitting he became quite miserable and implored a 
momentary release. Then he got two of his wives to sit 
on either side of him and mitigate by absorption the effect 
of my evil eye. Thus flanked he sat out bravely a whole 
half-hour but ever averted his head from my gaze, in such 
fashion that after many futile attempts to reproduce his 
features, I gave up the attempt in despair. Gobila was 
radiant at my defeat. His fetish was stronger than the 
white man's. Nevertheless he shirked any other contest 
of our psychic forces, and I never persuaded him to give 
me another chance. However, on this occasion we avoid 
any such disagreeable subject. The note-book is kept in 
hiding, and we attempt to draw Gobila out in a most 
innocent manner. Lest my queries should arouse his 
suspicions, Janssen is primed with the necessary questions 
to be put. Gobila is asking about guns — a good idea — 
Janssen carelessly inquires how long is it since the 
Ba-teke have known this weapon. The chief replies, after 
stopping a moment to think, that his father fought witli 
bows and arrows and spears, and knew not guns, which 
were only introduced towards tlie close of his life, when 
Gobila was a little boy.* 

" Can he ever remember to have heard speak of the 
time when there were no pine-apples, oranges, maize, 
manioc or sugar-cane ? '* " No ; were not those things 

* Gobila is not the real name of the present chief of Msuata. It is 

the name of an elder brother who was formerly chief, but who suffered 

from occasional fits of madness, or melancholia, in which he cut off too 

tnany ofbia lieges* heads. Consequently he was quitted by almost the 

Entirety of his people and slaveSj who ctoss^ VYi^ Ciovi^o "VitA^ l\i^ 

JeadwBhij) of Oawpama (the present Qi«ib\\&) aii^eaV«!Ni'^i!^^>\\«ci^H^% 



MSVATA. 197 

always with us ? " he replies inquiringly. Gobila answers 
several more questions and then begins to yawn, so we 
take the hint and leave him, going off to make a round of 
visits in the village. 

A friend of ours, Makole, whose name is phonetically 
the same as our great English historian's, sends word to 
say he is ill, will we come and see him ? Approaching 
his residence, we see that sometliing very special is taking 
place. The palisaded compound roimd Makole's huts is 
festooned with great palm branches, interlaced at times so 
as to form arches of greenery across the pathway. The 
entrance to the principal house, where the ceremony we 
have been invited to see is going on, is a veritable bower, 
so thickly do the upright palm fronds cluster about it. 
Thirty-nine people are crammed into the interior, which 
is about twenty feet by ten. They are all playing on 
drums, " marimbas," and a rude sort of lyre, and singing 
at the top of their voices, their nearly naked bodies 
streaming with sweat, for in addition to the exhausting 
nature of their occupation there is a roasting fire burning 
in the centre of the hut, and its smoke mixes with the 
steam from the human bodies and produces a thick mist 
through which various details of the interior can but 
dimly be discerned. At one end of the hut, however, we 
can see Makole, who is sick, seated under an overarching 
canopy of palm branches, with tlie soles of his feet turned 
towards the blaze. On one side of him a wife crouches 
over a dish of food that she is preparing. All this time 
her husband, a stout, well-made man in the prime of life, 
remains perfectly motionless and silent, the perspiration 
streaming down his body, and we are informed that it is 
an important condition of the cure that he should not 
give utterance to a sound while the charm is working. 

At length there is a pause for refreshments, and all the 



at Msuata. Gampama-Gobila is also called " Mbuma " by the Ba-yansi, 
either because he. lives near the Wa-bClma people, or because he is 
originally of that race. " Gampama is Ki-buma for cat. The real 
original Gobila still lives on in nia ancient ?!e&t/*i\:L\\i\!!M;v^** "^^^ ^5S« 
subjects that remain, and beoommg a \)^-^ot^ iot l«^^>^.i > ^»Sy. ^ 
bc^ejr to frighten naughty black chMtea. 



198 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO, 

occupiers of the hut, musicians, wives, and patient, turn 
out into the open, panting, laughing, and wiping the sweat 
from their glistening bodies. Jars of sweet and pleasant- 
tasting palm wine from the Malebu, or Hyphoene palms, 
is l)rouglit in by slaves, and all present, including ourselves, 
take a drink, Makole participating freely. Although he 
is bound to keep silent, he makes up for want of verbal 
welcome by the most effusive grins : in fact his face is 
wreathed in fatuous smiles, for he is evidently highly self- 
conscious, and imagines himself to be an interesting figure 
to the white men who have come to witness his " cure." 
His friends tell us he is suffering from headache, and to 
corroborate this, he himself points to his temples and 
forehead, which are painted with white pigment. But 
probably the whole affair is got up to serve as an excuse 
for a bout of malafu drinking and a grand function. 

We return to the station by canoe, going down stream 
merrily and at a great rate. 

The sun is very near setting as we arrive, so Janssen 
goes off to the goat's paddock to set a trap for the leopard 
in the little time of remaining daylight. He arranges a 
sort of narrow "boma," or three-sided structure of high 
stakes, at the end of which a bleating kid is tied to the 
triggers of three loaded guns, which are so placed that 
they command the only exit from the trap. The leopard, 
in the act of seizing the kid, will discharge tlie contents of 
tlie muskets into his body, and ought to die then and 
there from the effect.* Whilst Janssen is doing tliis, I 
am watching the sunset from the verandah. It is a 
beautiful scene, and one that makes me indignantly con- 
tradict certain writers who maintain that the tropics, both 
in flower-shows and fine sunsets, are inferior to the 
temperate zones. 

To-day the sun's career has been somewhat troubled, 
like that of many an earthly monarch. His rule at first 
was tranquil and undisputed. Then came the fearful 

• On this occasion the creature did receive the whole charge of the 
three guns, but nevertheless afterwards managed, though riddled with 
bullets, to leap the ten -foot-high fence mtVi\Lv\,^\3L\\^,«.Ti^^\.V,^\s.<idra^ 
itself to die in an atijuining field. 



MSUATA. 199 

mid-day battles and convulsions, terminating in victory 
for the luminary, who throughout the afternoon of his 
reign ruled in peace. Now, as he declines, his enemies 
revive, and his sinking is marked with bloody, troublous 
signs in the west. The twilight that succeeds his immo- 
lation is some half-hour in length,* and the sky slowly 
changes from fiery red to orange and pale green. The 
expanse of river sympathetically follows these dying 
changes, and the whole scene is vast and mystic, and one 
to sit and dream over until dusky night sets in with its 
dismal obscurity. Then it is pleasant to turn one's head 
away from the riverward aspect and greet the glow of 
cheery lamplight which shines out from the open door of 
our dining-room. The sun is dead ; long live the lamp ! 
Let us to our dinner. The cook comes in with the great 
tureen of soup, staggering under its weight ; and having 
changed our outgoing clothes, and brightened up our 
somewhat dowdy persons, we sit down to assist at that 
almost religious ceremony of the white man. One of the 
courses deserves notice — the plantain-eater I shot this 
morning is roasted on a spit and served up with fried 
kikwanga. It is delicious, and its large breast rivals a 
woodcock's in delicacy. 

When the meal is over, we sit and discuss the events of 
the day and form plans for the morrow. About ten we 
retire to our respective rooms, and soon, tucked up within 
mosquito curtains, dreams of the coming night begin to 
interweave themselves with the occurrences of the day. . . . 
Bang, bang, bang ! — I start up — am I still dreaming, or 
did I really hear the guns go off? Whilst I am still in 
doubt, Faraji comes in to say the leopard is shot. Tant 
mieux ! we will skin him in the morning ; and, sinking 
once more into my little bed, I fall into a sleep which 
terminates another day at Msuata. 

* The shortness of equatorial twilights is much exaggerated ; night 
never sets in until half-an-hour after sunset* 



200 A JOffBNET UP TEE BIVER CONGO. 



CHAPTER XT. 

HOMEWARDS. 

TuK Start fob Stanley Pool — A Floating Cassia Bkancii — A 
Troop of Elephants — Ba-yansi on the March — A Blood- 
BROTHEE — Chased by Hippopotami— Juma brings News from 
Home — The Hills of Stanley Pool — Their Trees and 
Flowers — Coquilhat's Welcome at Kimpoko — Arbive at 
Kinshasha— A Palaver— DuALL A, Stanley's Prime Minister 
— Bankwa's Speech — ^My Stay at L^iopoldville — ^Manyanga 
AGAIN — Boat-voyage to the Sea — Welcome at Boma — 
Arrival at Banana — Parting with my Zanzibaris — Back 
to Civilization. 

It was with considerable reluctance that I left Msuata 
to return once more to Stanley Pool. But the thought 
that I was nov/ on my homeward route somewhat alle- 
viated the regret with which I bade good-bye to the 
Upper Congo. On a bright Sunday morning towards the 
end of April, I set out on my journey down the river 
with two good-sized native canoes, paddled by my three 
Zanzibaris and some Krumanos that Janssen had lent me. 
The first canoe was fitted up with an awning for the sun, 
and grass cushions to repose on, and the second contained 
my heavy baggage and the things I could best afford to 
lose in case of untoward accidents. In my own canoe I 
had a few small cases containing such remains of my 
natural history collections as were spared me by the ants 
and the rainy season ; also my note-books and sketches, 
which I always carried in a box by my side, fearing to 
lose these results of my observations if I entrusted them 
to the care of the men. 
Janssen stood on the f ast-ieti:ea\img ^\\o\^ Qi'^^xiaJL^^^g, 



HOMEWARDS. 201 

our canoes went six miles an hour down the stream. We 
shouted au-revoir to one another without any presenti- 
ment that it was never "to the seeing again." Three 
months later my kind host of Msuata was drowned 
opposite his station. But I did not foresee this sad end 
to a bright career, so my parting was blithe and light- 
hearted. Everything seemed propitious to my journey. 
The sun shone brightly out of a pale-blue sky, unspotted 
by the slightest cloud, and his heat was tempered with 
the tenderest breeze blowing from the west, seeming to 
me like a message from the sea I was longing to greet. 
There was a general sense of bright activity in all things. 
The kingfishers and the bitterns had never sported with 
such activity, nor squeaked so lustily at every capture. 
The grey parrots were starting for their day's excursion, 
and whistled melodiously as they whirred over our heads. 
Even the very fish leapt in glad silvery shoals round 
the prow of the advancing canoe. The men sang and 
the paddles clove the water so energetically under their 
vigorous strokes, that my contentment was at times 
disturbed by the occasional showers of spray they flung 
over me and my goods. But I could not check their 
exuberance. It was too consistent with my own joy at 
being homeward-bound. Sometimes we raced the floating 
islands of arums and reeds, and beat them; but they 
were resigned to that, seeing they would easily catch us 
up in the night; sometimes we passed triumphantly 
poor staggering trees, torn up by their roots, with whole 
retinues of ferns, grasses, and parasitic plants attached, 
which were quite bewildered by the impetuous current 
that whirled them round and round, tossed them from 
side to side, rolled them over, and hurried them along, 
like miserable captives that they were, in its cruel clutch. 
One of these torn-up trunks was a species of Cassia, 
and its boughs were still in rich leaf and decked with 
beautiful yellow blossoms. Moreover, it carried quite a 
little population with it along its course. I noticed three 
lizards running up and down the branches, soma WUrx- 
flies settled on the fragrant \A.o^^oTas>, ^wft^ \i^<^ -^^^^ 



202 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

wagtails sunning and pluming themselves, as if they had 
chosen the floating tree-stem as a temporary home.* I 
began to think my day's journey was to be deliciously 
tranquil, forgetting that in Africa agreeable anticipa- 
tions are rarely realized. Towards noon, clouds began to 
collect in the east, from which quarter tlie rain always 
seems to come in this part of the Congo region. The 
wind was certainly blowing from the opposite direction, 
but this had little effect on the approaching storm, now 
fast covering the heavens with a blue-black pall, for 
storms in Africa are too imperious to care for the direction 
of the prevailing wind. They carry with them in their 
black bosoms a hurricane of their own, which goes before 
them in awful gusts and bellowings, and utterly silences 
the timid breeze that was feebly keeping back the rain. 
So, when the eye of the storm, a whirling mass of grey 
cloud round a purple centre, rose before us, we prudently 
put into the bank, tied the canoes to some stout trees, 
and then resignedly bent our heads to the tempest that 
roared over us. The storm was finished in a brief half- 
hour, but not so the rain, which dripped and dripped 
incessantly : yet I was too impatient to delay any further 
for this, and made the men take to their paddles once 
more. In spite of the wet weather, we achieved con- 
siderable progress. At about lialf-past five, we were 
coasting beside a very long and narrow island, in search 
of a camping-place, when I saw, not ten yards off", a large 
elephant, with moderate-sized tusks, standing amongst 
the high grass at the water's edge. He looked superb 
against the graceful glaucous -green Hyphoene palms 
which afforded such an artistic background. I did not 
shoot at him ; firstly, because it would have spoiled the 
picture, and secondly because a bullet from a Winchester 
rifle could do him but little harm. We stayed and 
watched the mighty beast some five minutes, he not 
taking the least notice. His colour told out quite greyish- 
white (the ridge of his back-bone was particularly light 

* On many rivers the^e floating trees must serve as a gre;it means 
for the diffusion of species. 



no MEW A EDS. 203 

in tone) against the foliage, and the whole effect of the 
grouping made a very pretty composition. We heard 
other elephants in the interior of the island, breaking 
down trees and branches, and, curiously enough, round 
this solitary creature on the beach were several Hyphoene 
palms laid low, torn down by the voracious elephant for 
the sake of their round, yellow fruit, of which he is so 
ravenously fond. That troop of elephants must have 
reached the island by swimming, as even in the dry 
season there is water between it and the mainland — a 
broad channel, in fact. The island is of some magnitude, 
and is covered with over a thousand palm-trees. 

We landed a short distance from the place where I had 
seen the elepliant, and camped out for the night on a 
very small space of sand, which was imfortunately all on a 
slant, so that during the night I was constantly gliding, 
feet foremost, off my bed. Add to this myriads of mos- 
quitoes, and it will seem as if the prospect appeared 
dismal ; nevertheless I passed a fairly agreeable evening. 
Tiie soup was an immense success, and then Janssen 
had given me some delicious wild honey, which very 
pleasantly varied the repast. 

On the morning succeeding the storm, rain-clouds still 
sullied the sky, but the sun soon overmastered them, and 
the day became fine and hot. Towards noon, the men 
asked to stop a little while at a large village on the south 
bank of the Congo to buy provisions. I gave them a 
quarter of an hour to effect their purchases, and dis- 
embarked myself to go and visit some travelling Ba-yansi 
who were encamped on tiie shore. They were the same 
party that had visited Msuata a few days ago to trade, 
and when I landed they rushed forward with loud cries of 
recognition. Indeed their greeting was quite affectionate. 
They patted my back, shook hands with me vigorously, 
and led me to look at their encampment. These people 
certainly understand how to journey comfortably accord- 
ing to the best of their means. A number of little — what 
shall I call them ? — tents, hovels, huts, were constructed 
out of matting, impenetrable to Xk^i y^\w, ^\A \\:s. '^^^ 



204 A JOUHNEY UP TEE BIVER CONGO. 

something Kke a small archway, or a somewhat flattened 
half-circle. The ground underneath this shelter was also 
neatly covered with matting, and inside the hut was the 
owner's " fetish " or little house-idol, his pipe, his head- 
rest or pillow, his gun — if he had one — and various little 
odds and ends, all neatly done up in skins of animals 
or native cloth. I bought a head-rest of one man for a 
tattered old shawl which I had meditated tossing into the 
Congo as worthless just before. 

The people here were handing round salt to each other 
in a large leaf. They eat it alone and with extraordinary 
gusto. One of these Ba-yansi men that I had previously 
met at Msuata became so affectionate after I had given 
him a few pinches of table-salt — to them an indescrib- 
able delicacy — that he implored me to become his " blood 
brother.'* I half laughingly consented, and he took his 
knife and, with the point of it, gently scratched my skin 
(on my fore-arm) as if he were going to vaccinate me. 
When a few drops of blood had appeared on the scarified 
flesh, he greedily sucked them, and then, repeating the 
same process on his own arm, invited me to apply my 
lips to the wound. I made a show of doing so, and the 
ceremony was then concluded by our exchanging presents 
and mutual protestations of eternal friendship. I have 
never seen this blood-brother of mine from that day when 
I left him smiling at me as our canoes glided off from the 
shore, and I confess I should be curious to know whether 
he would remember me, sliould we ever meet again. 

Shortly after we had quitted this place, and rounded a 
little promontory, we came very abruptly on a group of 
hippopotami, sunning themselves on a sand- bank. Three 
of them deliberately gave chase to us in the first canoe, 
but we merrily out-distanced them; then they turned 
about, and, seeing the baggage canoe coming on behind, 
swam towards it. Tor a moment I was anxious for my 
baggage, but the men put out into the open, and the 
hippopotami, finding a stern chase beyond their powers or 
inclinations, desisted and returned to sun themselves. It 
is true that in taking to the middle ol \\\^ tvn^\ XX^a \fi^^ii 



E0MEWABD8. 205 

ran a risk of encoiinterin<T whirpools, but by a little skilful 
steering these were easily avoided, and it was fun to see 
one of the pursuing hippopotami caught in a foam-flecked 
vortex, wherein he went whirling round until he was 
thoroughly giddy, no doubt. Hippopotami are so bold 
and undisturbed on the Congo that they are a real source 
of danger to the canoes. One never knows whether to 
shoot or not. If you hit and do not kill the beast outright, 
he will come for you with a vengeance ; but, at the same 
time, if you do not shoot, he may wreck you from a spirit 
of pure mischievousness. 

We rowed long and far to-day. The weather was so 
fine, the water so smooth, and the scenery so lovely, that 
as I lay back on my grass cushion in the prow of the 
canoe, and watched the groups of Hyphoene palms and the 
hanging woods deploy before me, a beautiful, if somewhat 
monotonous panorama, the disquietudes and risks of 
canoe travelling seemed very trifling and the pleasure 
great. I was also able to observe no less than three 
separate storms, north, east, and south, going on at once, 
and to watch their great curtains of rain deluging the sky 
and literally streaming themselves out, becoming at last 
a thin veil, through which the distant landscapes might 
be observed as a picture that is seen through a veil of 
double gauze. We fortunately escaped without a wetting, 
which was exceptionally lucky. 

Towards five o'clock that afternoon we stopped and 
disembarked on a strip of sandy beach, surrounded by 
high grass and stunted trees, with tlie fine hills on the 
opposite shore rising above tlie water, thickly wooded, as 
on the borders of some Scotcii lake. Tlie river narrows 
strangely here, and seems shut in with hills. I sat down 
on the beach to sketch, when I heard the men calling out 
that " Juma " was coming. Juma was a Zanzibari whom 
Janssen had recently sent to Leopoldville with letters to 
Mr. Stanley, and was now returning to Msuata. I had 
but little hope of news, having been so often disappointed, 
so I was proportionately pleased when Juma came and 
placed a large packet in my Yian^t ^\i\!^ Qftrc&ak\Ska^^^^\ 



206 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVEB CONGO. 

to me, priceless treasures. Letters from Europe I had 
not had for many months, and here there were dozens in 
my lap. Graphics, Punches and other newspapers stared 
at me from their battered postal covers, as if surprised to 
find themselves, probably for the first time, on the Upper 
Congo. I passed subsequently a very happy evening, and 
so did my men, for I had given largesse with an ample 
hand in consideration of my good fortune. 

Our journey the next morning was comparatively 
uneventful. The flies were peculiarly annoying, espe- 
cially a large brown one that gives a very cruel bite. 
They seemed to increase in numbers as we approached 
the Pool. 

I stopped for a short time to draw some white lilies * 
that grew by the borders of the river in great numbers, 
and were very noticeable at this season of the year, with 
their tall clusters of delicate white flowers. We rowed 
into the Pool towards the afternoon, and I was more than 
ever struck with its imposing aspect. I can quite imagine 
that Stanley, on descending the Congo in 1877, must 
have thought himself entering here on some great lake or 
inland sea, as he saw the clear horizon of water expanding 
before him. 

The vegetation which clothes the precipitous shores on 
the soutli side of Stanley Pool, near the entrance from the 
Upper Eiver, is one of the most magnificent spectacles 
the Congo offers. Eising nearly perpendicularly from the 
water, the forest climbs the hillsides, higher than the eye 
can reach, without a single break in its luxuriance. The 
variety of colours, too, at this season, when most of the 
trees are in blossom, is particularly striking. One tree- 
top will be covered with scarlet flowers scattered with a 
liberal hand ; another has pendulous flowers of a pinky- 
white hanging gracefully by their long stalks amid the 
sombre masses of foliage ; while errant creepers in 
exuberant growth trail their yellow and purple blossoms 
over the victims they entwine. There is every note struck 

* Crtnum zeyJanicum, A common lily io equatorial Africa, giving 
a most fragrant scent, aod mucU tViXoiig<ed\)^' \\\^ ^\^^ ^«A\>^^, 



HOMEWARDS. 



in the gamut of green, and the trees that form tliis mass 
of foliage may vary in tone from blue-green to greenish- 




yellow, and from gi-eeniah-white to ruaset-te,d, ?ia.4, '^Sas^ 
wiU differ equally in form and as^ftct. "^VAa wscifo ^ix^ 



208 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO. 

compactly massed in their leafage, others grow erratically 
and in disordered tufts. Beautiful AlUzzias dominate 
their fellows, clothed in foliage of dark-green velvet ; 
draccenas raise their spiky heads here and there from out 
of the soft verdant mass. The large flat leaves of a fig 
alternate with the feathery palm fronds, while many 
stems are completely disguised by the network of graceful 
creepers which masks them like a vegetable cobweb. The 
calamus palm makes a sort of lattice-work fence, rising 
straight up from the water's edge, and seems effectually 
to forbid trespassing in these fairy forests, while along the 
river's brim lines of white lilies stand like sentinels to see 
the barrier is not passed. 

Before evening we had arrived at Kimpoko, a newly- 
founded station at the northern entrance to Stanley Pool. 
Here the pleasant face of Lieutenant Coquilhat* was 
greeting me as I landed, and after four months* absence 
from anything connected with the outside world this 
return to the outskirts of civilization (which, owing to 
Mr. Stanley, Stanley Pool has now become) completely 
prevented my sleeping till a late hour in the night, and I 
kept up poor CoquUhat talking all the time, and discussing 
the European news of half a year. 

The following day I again set out on my journey 
towards Leopoldville, and voyaged for three hours amid 
the islands and sand-banks, and the great placid waters of 
the Pool. The " Dover Cliffs " glittered in the morning 
sunlight in all their chalk-like brilliancy, and, with the 
soft green grass that crowned their scarped summits, 
looked singularly English. I arrived at Kiushasha towards 
mid-day, and saw there the Royal, and quite a fleet of 
other boats. Stanley was here, they told me, conducting 
a palaver. I landed, and walked up through the tall, 
luxuriant grasses, and past the many native houses, 
deserted by their inhabitants, to the focus of attraction, 
which was a large enclosure between high palisades, 

* Since — like many other gallant and enthusiastic men — dead from 
fever and overwork; but not before he had risen to high eminence in 
the Congo Free State.— H. H, Ji 



SoMSWaSPS. 209 

where, under the shade of splendid baobabs, and amid a 
green tracery of palm fronds and creepers, a most imposing 
palaver was going on. A rough circle or amphitheatre of 
human beings was formed, those of the inner ranks seated 
and attentive, and they whom an inferior grade in society 
relegated to a less prominent position standii^ up, their 




ISLAND DFPOSITB KIKSHAGKA. 



arras round each others* waists and necka in the limply 
caressing way so natural to these people. But seated 
opposite to each other in the circle were two important 
groups which attracted alternately supreme attention. 
All that was chiefest in Black and White was engaged in 
earnest deliberation. On two superb leopards' skins sat 
the two principal kinglets of the nft\%\\\i(iiM\iocA. '^■aa, ^isv 



210 A JOURNEY UP TSE RIVER CONGO, 

old man, with sunken jaws, but a refined-looking face ; 
the other, a very heavy, vulgar-looking person, who spoke 
but little, and whose stolid silence evidently covered a 
want of mental force. In face of them was " Bula 
Matadi,'* looking his most chieflike, with his resolute face 
and grey hair, and the sword of state at his side. On his 
left sat a young Belgian officer, awaiting the favourable 
result of the palaver to found a station at Kinshasha; 
and at Stanley's feet Dualla, prime minister, interpreter 
and counsellor, argued, persuaded, and cajoled the black 
brothers of the "Stone- Breaking'' chief into concordance 
with his wishes. When I had exchanged a hasty greeting 
with Stanley, and taken a seat by his side, the palaver, 
which I had momentarily interrupted, went on again. 
Bankwa, a chief who was opposed to Stanley's building 
and founding a station at Kinshasha, rose to his legs and 
made a lengthy speech, strongly advising the two chiefs 
on the leopard- skins to have nothing to do with white 
men. " To-day," he said, " they will send one white man 
here, but next year twenty more will come, and because 
we have given land to one, we must do so to all the 
others ; and so, soon, Kinshasha will belong to the white 
man, as Kintamo (Leopoldville) does already." There 
was a great deal of truth in Bankwa's remarks, but 
unfortunately he could not look beyond the immediate 
present, and conjure up from his inner consciousness a 
jjicture of the material advantages that would accrue to 
the people of Kinshasha from the settlement of civilization 
in its midst. However, his opposition was overruled, and 
the result of the palaver was favourable to Stanley, 
permission to occupy land and build a station being 
given. Then presents were interchanged, and we left the 
delighted people shrieking "Mbote" at the departing 
steamer till they were hoarse. 

Once more Kallina Point rose before my eyes, and 

further on I saw the many buildings of Leopoldville and 

the Baptist Mission surmounting the hill of Ntamo. As 

J Janded with Stanley at the little port of the station 

and walked up the steep ascent tlaiougji the Zanzibaris' 



HOMEWAUbS. 211 

village, and the beautiful banana groves, the whole place 
had a tender, homelike look about it, bathed as it was in 
the soft afternoon sunlight, and surrounded by so many- 
evidences of comfort and civilization, strange to my eyes, 
so long accustomed to the wilderness. But all was not 
the same as when I had left Leopoldville in the early part 
of the year to ascend the river. New buildings upraised 
themselves, new faces looked out on me, and many old 
ones were gone from the scene. 

I stayed with Stanley for nearly ten days at Leopold- 
ville, and enjoyed his hospitality to the full. With 
plenty of books, good food, and a most entertaining host, 
the time passed but too quickly, and I really felt quite 
lonely as I once more set out on my journey to the 
coast. 

We took five days returning to Manyanga, and here I 
paused again, to rest under the roof of my good friend 
Nilis, for the climate was beginning to tell a little on 
my health, and a few days of continuous travel brought 
on great lassitude and fatigue. It took us two days to 
descend the Congo in a whale-boat to Isangila, where I 
met many old friends and new arrivals en route for the 
Upper Eiver. Here, too, was the charming and intellectual 
Abbe Guillot, the pioneer of the Franco- Algerian missions 
on the Upper Congo, who a few months later was drowned 
in the fickle stream in company with poor Janssen. I 
left Isangila after a night's rest, and set out for Vivi, the 
last stage of my journey to be done on foot. Though we 
were now in the month of May, the rainy season was still 
in full vigour ; and the first night after leaving Isangila 
there was a terrific downpour. I had but a few 
miserable carriers, beside my three faithful Zanzibaris, 
and these former were sluggish and obstinate Kabindas. 
AVhen the rain began they quietly stepped out of the 
path, made themselves shelters of branches, and proceeded 
to rest for the night there, with my baggage, while I had 
gone on in front ; consequently I was obliged to pass the 
night witli little shelter from the rain, and no food wha.t^ 
ever. However, I reached YWi \x\\A.m^\.<^^ ^^\ftx "Oox.^^ 



212 A JOUBirUT tJF ^HE BtVEit CONQO. 

days' walking, with no more serious complaint than 
exhaustion arising from fatigue ; and the quiet weeks of 
continuous rest that I passed there soon restored me to a 
fair amount of strength. 

Whilst stopping at Vivi I visited the Falls of Yelala, 
as described in Chapter III., and made a few other 
excursions in the neighbourhood. Then, as the time for 
meeting the ocean steamer drew nigh, I embarked on 
board a whale-boat belonging to the station (the little river 
steamer of the Expedition being temporarily disabled), 
and, with a crew of Zanzibaris and Kruboys, made my 
way slowly down to the sea. This journey, usually lasting 
nine or ten hours, took me three days, and, owing to a 
continued attack of rheumatism, was not over-agreeable. 
The first night we had intended to reach Boma at sun- 
down, but, owing to difficult complications, we were still 
painfully struggling along the broadened stream and 
threading an uncertain course through the sandbanks at 
ten o'clock at night. 

At length the red and lurid moon arose, having lost a 
quarter, and looking like a Dutch cheese with the top cut 
off, and showed us more clearly our course amid the 
wooded islets that stud the middle of the river. We 
landed at the first house to be seen on the outskirts of 
Boma, which fortunately turned out to be a factory of 
Messrs. Hatton and Cookson's. Here I received, though 
utterly unknown to the inmates of the house, a most 
kindly reception, such as I have ever met with from 
English and Anglo-Portuguese houses in Africa. Although 
the night was far advanced, the cook was roused from his 
slumbers, and the gentlemen of the house bestirred them- 
selves to make me comfortable. I went to bed first, as 
an attack of fever was menacing; but, later on, the 
delicious meal of fragrant tea and cold wild-duck, which 
was spread by my bedside, banished the preliminary 
shivers, and I afterwards found in sleep a sweet restorative. 
The next day I breakfasted at another house in Boma, 
and. then proceeded farther on my way to Ponta da Lenha. 
Here also I arrived late at nig\i\.,W\. \Xna \i\s\ft our way 



H0MEWABD8, 213 

was strangely illuminated by the great grass fires which 
covered the distant hills with sheets of vivid flame. 

Soon after leaving Ponta da Lenha the mangroves begin 
to attest the commencement of brackish water, and the 
river widens till its opposite bank is well-nigh invisible, 
and many islands troop in long succession, often seeming 
to be the mainland on the other side. Then we pass 
Kisange rapidly, earned on by the current, and, lastly, a 
whifl* of fresh breeze blows the sea smell intx) our nostrils, 
and in the far distance the white houses of Banana are 
seen, and, beyond, the open horizon of the Atlantic Ocean. 

I spent three days at Banana, waiting for the Portuguese 
steamer, and passed my time in choosing presents for my 
three Zanzibaris out of the stores at the Dutch house. 
Each man received a blanket, a pipe, a roll of tobacco and 
a tobacco-pouch, a pocket-knife, a pair of scissors and a 
looking-glass ; and then I further bestowed a little gift of 
money, with strict injunctions that it was to be kept and 
spent only on their return journey to Zanzibar. 

I received much kindness during these few days at 
Banana from my old acquaintances at the Dutch house ; 
nevertheless, the approaching return to civilized countries, 
and the slight foretaste of civilization to be got at Banana, 
did not strike me as being so enviable as I had hitherto 
supposed. I felt a positive regret for the quiet, simple 
life of Msuata and the Upper Eiver, and grew saddened 
at the approaching separation from my three faithful 
followers, with whom my later African wanderings had 
been so inseparably and happily associated. Ever since 
the day when I first saw these men in the porch of 
Stanley's house at Vivi, there had sprung up between us a 
real sympathy of feeling. These men were to me more 
than servants ; they were friends and confidants, who 
shared in my mirth when I was gay, bore meekly my ill- 
humour when I was cross ; nursed me when I was sick ; 
washed for me, cooked for me, mended my clothes; 
watched over my interests, never robbed me of a penny's 
worth nor told me an untruth. If Faraji, Mafta., Q»\s5lc 
Jmbono may be taken as fail saTO^X^^^ o*^ "Otv.^ ^<e«^^- 



214 A JOUBNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

negroid population of East Africa, then I think this 
hybrid race is destined to largely help in the opening-up 
of Africa. The mixture of Arab blood and Arab culture 
gives a stability and manliness to the Waswahili which is 
lacking in even the finest race of pure Negro origin. The 
Congo peoples, for instance, are usually amiable and soft- 
mannered, but at heart they are seldom to be depended 
on. There is something so eminently childish in the 
Negro's character. A love of talking, a desire to thrust 
himself forward in every matter, a naivete of manner 
which is at times very amusing, but which becomes 
somewhat wearisome when you are no longer content to 
be amused, and seek for something more reliable than 
mere simplicity of thought. All these traits are found in 
the black races of Africa that are of purely Negro or 
Bantu stock ; but in the Semiticised people of Zanzibar 
you find men of thouglit and reflection, whom you may 
use as counsellors and confidants; men who are really 
capable of zealous service, of disinterested affection, and 
to whom gratitude is a concept neither foreign to their 
intelligence nor their tongue. 

Arrived on board the mail steamer Portugal^ I found 
myself, after many months' absence from civilization, once 
more among people that were fashionably dressed. Fresh 
from Europe, and touching at the African continent for 
the first time on the voyage, they regarded me curiously 
as I walked about the deck in my tattered garments and 
cumbrous boots, and I felt myself morbidly sensitive to 
their scrutiny. Faraji, Mafta and Imbono had said their 
last good-byes, and the boat which bore them back to the 
shore was disappearing fast from my view in the evening 
mists that swathed the swampy coast ; the Krumen who 
had accompanied me from Vivi had also gone, in haste to 
spend the little money-presents I had given them ; I felt 
singularly and sadly alone — somewhat like a fallen 
potentate. Here were people who, far from shrinking 
from my frown, glared at me unmoved, and calmly 
reviewed my idiosyncrasies through their insolent eye- 
glasses. The stewards were anything \i\x\. ^^tet^xAM, ^.ivd 



HOMEWARDS. 215 

asked pointedly to see my first-class ticket. However, I 
ransacked my weather-stained trunks and found in them 
some remnants of respectable clothing, such as might befit 
the decent poor ; but when I sat down at the end of a 
long table-cThote with the spick-and-span Portuguese 
officials and their wives, who were carrying with them 
into their African exile as much flavour of fashionable 
Lisbon as they could wear on their persons, I felt myself 
to be a great barbarian, and almost wished to be back in 
the centre of Africa, where I should once more lead the 
ion. At last, after two days' steaming, the beautiful Bay 
of Loanda opened out before us, and I knew myself to be 
among friends. I walked hurriedly up through the sandy 
streets, to a blue-and-white house situated on an eminence 
overlooking the town, from whose roof the Union Jack 
rose proudly into the still air. The consul was looking 
out of his study window, and thought I was either a 
beggar or a " degredado " come to solicit work ; but when 
I looked up at him and laughed, he welcomed me as one 
come from the dead (perhaps more heartily than in that 
case), and under his hospitable roof I had a happy foretaste 
of an English home. 



216 A JOUBNEY UP THE JRIVEB CONGO. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CLIMATE AND NATURA.L HISTORY. 

Thk Unhealthy Districts — Dbinkiko -water — Precautioks 
AGAINST Sunstroke — How to live on the Congo — The Ex- 
cessive Moisture — The Kainy Season— "Smokes" — "Little 
Dries" — The Dry Season — ^The African Spring — Early 
SuMMEv — Violence of the Storms — The Harvest — Geology 
OF THE District — Metals — Flora and Fauna — The Eiver 

NOT A natural BOUNDARY — BOTANICAL ORDERS CHIEFLY 
REPRESENTED— The PaLMS — LiST OF OHABACTEBISTIO SPECIMENS 
COLLECTED — COLOUR AND FrAGBAKCE. 

The climate of the Western Congo naturally varies in 
different degrees of healthiness and temperature, according 
to the regions through which the river passes, but on 
the whole it may be said to be infinitely superior to that 
of the Niger or the Gold Coast. Tlie great absence of 
low, marshy ground about its banks is doubtless the cause 
of less virulent fever, and the regular cool breezes from 
the South Atlantic greatly reduce the tropical heat. The 
river probably is least healthy between Boma and the 
sea, owing, no doubt, to the mangrove swamps that 
inevitably attend the widening out of the embouchure. 
Boma itself is decidedly insalubrious.* It is the hottest 
place on the Congo, and surrounded by many marshes. 
Towards Vivi it becomes decidedly cooler, owing to the 
greater elevation; and the higher you proceed up the 
river the healthier the climate becomes. One aid to 
salubrity is the magnificent drinking water tjiat way be 

* / believe extensive public works catried out by tfee Belgians Ji^v© 
quii;e BaniGed Boma.^-U, H. J, 



CLIMATE AND NATUSAL HISTORY. 



217 



had everywhere above Boma ; not the water of the Congo 
— which, though wholesome, haa a disagreeably sweet 
taste — but the water from the unnumbered rills and 
rivulets which are everywhere trickling, wet and dry 
season alike, all the year round. Consequently dysentery 




0AHOEKBI& UAXllU. 



is almost un- 
known abovL' 
Vivi, The 
most preva- 
lent form of 
sickness is 

the ordinary African fever from over-exposure to the 
sun and sudden chills. The moat dangerous malady 
is bilious fever, the "febre perniciosa" of the Portu- 
guese, but this is rarely incurred without much previous 
neglect of one's health. Beyond Stanley Ewi, "L ««». 
only call the temperature 4d\^\Sxi^. "W 



218 * A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO 

such a place as Msuata for instance, from 87° in the 
shade at noon to G0° at two in the morning, and this 
in the rainy or hot season. The highest temperature 
I have ever observed at Vivi was 98° in the shade, on a 
very hot day. It is quite possible to walk about all 
through the middle of the day and not feel the heat 
disagreeable, provided you wear a helmet and carry an 
umbrella ; but when you see, as I have seen, young men 
newly arrived from Europe exposing themselves to the 
noonday sun with nothing but a smoking-cap on their 
heads, you will hardly be surprised that occasionally 
deaths from sunstroke take place. And then the relatives 
of these victims of their own imprudence write to the 
papers, especially in Belgium, and speak of the cruel 
African Minotaur and its meal of white flesh ! The fact 
is that under a tropical sun much greater prudence and 
care are needed to regulate one's mode of living in 
accordance with the surrounding conditions than in the 
temperate zones, where the effect follows less rapidly on 
the cause. In the hot regions, more especially in the 
countries that are hot and moist, the agencies of nature 
are somewhat sudden and violent in their action. Every- 
thing is " forced " and hurriedly urged on to a climax. 
What in Europe would be a mere imprudence, only 
causing a serious effect if long persisted in, becomes 
under an African sun a grave danger. You over-eat 
yourself, for instance (an excess both common and 
excusable when entailed by the violent, unhealthy 
appetites which the climate often promotes) ; and, instead 
of being quit with an ordinary attack of indigestion, you 
find yourself laid up with a sharp attack of bilious 
fever, and perhaps, before you or your companions have 
time to check the rapid growth of the malady, other 
complications set in, and in two or three days you are 
dead. Yet it is possible to enjoy excellent health on 
the Congo, if only it be borne upon one's mind to use 
moderation in all things. Abstain from nothing that is 

pleasant and innocuous, but abuse no form of enjoyment. 

JSat, drink^ and be merry, and lememW \Jaafc mea^e 



CLIMATE AND NA TUBAL HISTORY. 219 

abstention is as harmful as riotous excess. Let every 
man judge for himself and follow implicitly within due 
bounds the dictates of his stomach — ^that is when he has 
no reason to believe h^ is prompted by unhealthy 
cravings. If you conceive a great love for jams and 
sweet biscuits, indulge in them tiU satiety begins to take 
the edge off your greediness, and in all probability this 
desire for *' sweets " is prompted by a necessity for sugar 
in your system. Avoid alcohol as much as you can. It 
is almost a case in which abstention is excusable, for wine 
and brandy are dangerous adjuncts to a healthy man's 
repast in Africa. On the other hand, alcohol is simply 
invaluable as a tonic when weak from fever or other 
causes. Beer, in my own case, proved beneficial and 
agreeable, but with others it provoked biliousness. Wash 
in warm water rather than cold, dress warmly and sleep 
well covered; satisfy all reasonable and natural desires, 
and you will find life on the Congo both healthy and 
enjoyable. 

The great fault of the climate lies in the excessive 
damp. Even in the dry season there is great moisture in 
the air, for, though there is no downright rain, yet the 
mornings and evenings are ushered in by dense white 
mists, like low-lying clouds, which incessantly filter 
through the clamm} atmosphere a drizzling vaporous 
spray that descends over everything like a heavy dew. 
This is the "cacimbo" of the Portuguese colonies and 
the "smokes" of the Guinea coast. These morning 
and evening mists are characteristic of the rainy season, 
and during the rainy months they disappear, and the 
beginning and closing of the day is generally bright and 
clear. 

The relative length of the rainy season varies as you 
advance from the mouth of the Congo towards the 
equator. Near the sea there are about four months of 
rain — November, December, February, and March — with 
an intermediate dry season in the month of January ; but 
ascending the river you find this gradually alterin^^ aixd 
on Stanley fool the yaii\8 coTQUi^n'c,^ ysjl Q^\fS^^:^ '«2^ 



220 A JOVRNET UP THE BIVEB CONGO. 

continue till about the 20tli of May, thus leaving four 
months of dry season. There is also here no interval in 
January, no "little dries," as they are called. Higher up 
the river still, approaching the equator, the natives tell 
me it rains often in June, August, and September, so that 
this may be called a true equatorial climate, where rain is 
seldom absent, and consequently, as we find at Bolobo, 
this is the region of perpetual forest. The reason this 
forest belt does not extend more fully over Africa is that, 
where there is a continuous dry season of four, five, or six 
months, there is time for the long grass to become 
thoroughly tindered by the sun, and the natives can then 
more easily set going the great bush-fires, in which they 
delight, which clear the ground for their plantations, and 
at the same time sweep the forest from the hills. In the 
equatorial regions of perpetual moisture this is impossible, 
and so the forest country there, with its somewhat peculiar 
fauna and avi-fauna, continues to represent a condition of 
things which probably existed more widely over Africa 
before the advent of man, or, rather, before the period 
when man first began to give some effect to his growing 
dissatisfaction with the arrangements of Nature, and to 
take the law into his own hands. I am sure that the 
arboreal life of our species dates very far back in its 
development, and that, like our cousins the baboons, we 
had, whilst we were yet mere monkeys, begun to prefer 
the rocks and caverns * and the knolls of observation in 
an open country to the dense woods in which our degraded 
relations the gorillas and orangs still skulk in sullen 
shyness. As a rule man is an enemy of the forest, and 
has done much to circumscribe his future supplies of coal, 
but perhaps on the whole he is unconsciously right. . The 
open country is far healthier and brighter than the 
gloomy mysterious forest depths, and the higher forms of 
mammals — those that are strongest in intelligence and 
widest in range — seem to have been evolved from the 
breezy plateaus and rolling plains. 

* Parly paJeoIitlijc man is constatiWy ;\saomU^ ^\^i^i<iv?^, 



CLIMATE AND N A TUBAL HIS TOUT. 221 

It seems to be hardly realized ho\r wintry is the aspect 
of the dry season in the tropics. Many more of the trees 
in Africa are deciduous than we often imagine in our 
conjured- up mental visions of a fair tropic land, where 
perpetual verdure reigns, and the vegetation is a vague, 
indefinite mixture of limp palms, with fronds like ostrich- 
feathers, and rampant bananas raising their florid greenery 
above the masses of formless creepers. But nevertheless, 
when about a month has elapsed after the last rains are 
over, the aspect of an African hill-side has much of the 
cheerless desolation of winter about it. The once imposing 
baobabs, whose masses of verdure were fair to see, are 
reduced to mazes of leafless twigs ; the ground is covered 
with a brown carpet of fallen leaves ; many trees, though 
retaining their foliage, put forth no fresh shoots, and are 
yellow and seared with the hot sun ; here and there an 
evergreen stands out, like an English yew or holly, in 
almost heartless contrast of dark cold green amid its 
faded, withered fellows, and next to it, perhaps, is a white 
skeleton of what was a short time since a tufted tree. 
The tall herbs, erewhile gay with gorgeous flowers, show 
now nothing but yellow stalks and shrivelled seed-vessels, 
in, which perhaps there still lurks a point of colour in the 
red or orange seeds that gleam from under the brown 
husk. The many tiny flowerets, the mosses and fungi, 
are scarce to find ; only certain repulsive plants — things 
with fleshy, mutilated limbs, weirdly swollen, distorted and 
covered with malicious prickles — stand forth in disagree- 
able prominence, screened from view no longer by the fair 
and delicate creeping ferns and clambering lycopodiums, 
and seeming to stand unchanged and prosperous when all 
else fades and dies. In the great meadows through which 
the path meanders the waving grasses are laid low, and in 
their place are dismal tracts of black ashes where the 
bush fires have just swept by. 

But the dry season is hardly death as much as recupera- 
tion. It is a short pause — a sleep in which the expended 
forces of Nature are once more gathered in. Just as the 
earth in its summer solstice ^^Yas> ow\i Sx^tss. '^^ ^^^ 



222 A JOURNEY UP TBE BIVEB CONGO. 

control like a restless child, and then, wearied with it^ 
wilfulness, lets itself be slowly drawn in again to run its 
sober winter journey, so its tiny chQdren, who have rioted 
in all the exuberant excesses of spring and summer, need 
the repose of the slack months to restore their energies. 
The birds put away their fine clothes, the " season " being 
over, and go into villegiature in plain suits of every- 
day garments. The whydah-bird especially, who all the 
summer long was the veriest rake, and flaunted his long 
plumes wantonly before the eyes of his lady friends in a 
manner quite disastrous to their virtue, has now lost his 
good looks, and assumes the bearing of a cynic wearied 
with excess of love and easy conquests, dropping his 
beautiful deportment and lich dress, and assuming a 
costume that is strictly plain and almost shabby. He 
also has to economise for his past expenditure, but it is 
also with the view of having " another good time " by 
and by. 

Whether life's cycle has had a beginning, and will have 
an end, we know not, but to our finite comprehension it 
seems eternal. Out of life comes death, which is inactivity, 
and out of this springs active life again. The perennials 
die down to their roots, exhausted with their late display 
of vigour, but when the returning rains once more soften 
and cool the dry, cracked soil, up spring the bright young 
shoots from tlie old stock to flourish anew and live their 
life. And if the annual dies, has it not scattered round it 
germs from which a hundred children rise to carry on its 
pedigree and spread its race ? So, if there is a winter in 
Africa, there is also a spring, full of hope and promise and 
cheerful activity. The first rains are seldom violent or 
long-continued, but they effectually moisten the soil and 
cause the dried-up brooks to flow and the rivers to swell. 
Then a myriad flowers blow, the sternest, woodiest shrubs 
evince an unsuspected tenderness; spiteful euphorbias, 
prickly acacias, apopletic baobabs show that some poetic 
feeling lurks beneath their forbidding exterior and finds 
a vent in innocent and fragrant blossoms. A wealth of 
colour Gils the woods, the plain, \Ai^ ^v^^m^^, and even 



CLIMATE Al^D NATURAL EISTOHY. 223 

covers the harshest rocks and mountains. Tall orchids 
spring up by the river-side, proud of their matchless 
beauty. Cannas and amomums lurk in all the damp, 
luxuriant glades. The largest trees — stern, sober and 
business-like all the rest of the year — display a fortnight's 
blaze of blossoming in a sudden and abrupt manner, as if 
ashamed of the weakness. The very flowering of the 
grasses tries to be feebly pretty ; and, as they have no 
petals to boast of, they show their purple stamens 
apologetically. The birds build. The weaver-birds hang 
their pendent nests on all the grass stalks that border the 
streams. The coarse, boisterous fishing-eagles furbish up 
their dirty, untidy eyries, and carry on and quickly 
conclude a soulless courtship : the " amorous doves " begin 
their sickly-sentimental cooing in every shady tree, and 
bright, practical couples of parrots may be seen bustling 
round the liollows in many a trunk that contains their 
intended breeding-place. 

About this season the natives will bring you many 
young animals — perhaps the cubs of a black-backed 
jackal, or the sweet little kittens of a genet cat. In the 
still reaches of the river, on some quiet evening, you may 
see the mother hippopotamus leaving the water in a 
leisurely manner, accompanied by her fine pink baby ; 
they are intending to sleep on shore for greater security 
from the spiteful crocodiles, whose young ones, by-the- 
bye, are just emerging from the egg and running the 
gauntlet, not only of their natural enemies, tlie storks and 
ibises and ichneumons, but of their unnatural fathers, who 
do not approve of large families. 

So the spring advances till it is summer, and then come 
a few short weeks of delicious monotony, when the rain 
diminishes, and nature in the acme of her beauty stands 
still in a sweet content. But on content there follows 
a burst of riotous excess. The air is charged with 
electricity. The storms recommence with a fury and 
violence which never marked them heretofore. The 
thunder roars, the wind howls, and the rain descends in 
-disordered floods that are no loiig,et \Jcka ^e,\iS^<^ ^^ntvn'^^'^ ^ 



224 A JOURNEY UP fHE RIVER 00 md. 

a thirsty world, but the reckless destroyers of fragQe 
beauty. Against the pQed-up banks of sullen cloud the 
lightning blazes in silent, vivid wrath, or, moved to 
greater vehemence of anger, tears in zigzags over the 
hillsides and deals out sudden death. Between these 
stormy outbursts come intervals of tearful repentance. 
The battered flowers lie low, branches and leaves strew 
the rain-pitted strand, the sky is a pale exhausted blue, 
and Nature, like a passionate woman, seems disposed to 
regret her violence, and perhaps through the voice of 
some small piping bird falters out her repentance over the 
disordered scene. But she is excited by the ardent sun, 
who is always imbuing the hot air with a feverishness of 
unassuaged desire. There is a lustfulness now in most 
things. The crocodiles hoarsely roar at night with strange 
love promptings. The heavy hippopotami pursue their 
mates at sundown with amorous gruntings, crashing 
through the high rank grass. The very grass itself, once, 
when the rain first came, a tender green and timid 
bladelet, creeping above the ashes of its predecessor, is 
now become an insolent obstruction, with strong and 
knotted stem and razor-bladed leaves, tlirusting its many 
flower-heads in your face, a very upstart in vulgar pride. 
Man himself seems swayed by this time of orgie. The 
crops are gathered in, the sugar-cane is cut, and, from its 
juice a heady spirit is made which furnishes the cause and 
excuse of many a wild debauch. It is time that Nature 
put a check upon her riot ; the wanton world must be 
purified with fire. Then the rain ceases, the ground 
dries, the river shrinks. Submerged islands reappear, and 
cut-off pools stagnate. The always-shining sun is quickly 
preparing the fiery purification. One day .a native 
throws a lighted brand among the withered herbage. 
The wind springs up, and an awful blaze roars before it, 
sweeping rapidly over the hills, so rapidly that, while it 
reduces the grass to tinder, it does little more than scorch 
the trees. Then, with the increasing drought, life resumes 
its soberness. The bull hippopotami skulk in groups of 
celibates apart from their ma\.ea, v^Vio, ^vtk the present!- 



CLIMATE AND NATURAL HISTORY. 225 

ment of a future maternity, lead a quiet and regular life. 
The doves relax in their cooing, and devote themselves to 
a gluttonous repast on the many seeds which are now 
scattered broadcast on the soil. The baobabs shed their 
leaves, and everything once more re-enters the winter 
state of repose and recuperation. 

The rain on the Congo not only falls with considerable 
force and persistence, the downpour sometimes lasting 
continuously for twenty hours, but also seems to possess 
some chemical quality which aids it in disintegrating the 
hard metamorphic rocks, and in forming the deep-red 
surface soil. The action of water, both falling from the 
sky and coursing in torrents down the hills, has largely 
modified the surface in the Cpngo lands. Strange hollows 
and ravines are scooped out by the rain wherever it finds 
a weak spot, and, after every heavy thunderstorm, the 
water rushing down the hillsides in temporary brooks 
carries with it quantities of the friable soil, and cuts great 
channels which in course of time become accentuated and 
deepened till their sides fall in, and thus the mountain or 
hillock is slowly but surely being levelled and the valley 
filled up. Here and there in the hilly cataract region 
great isolated blocks of quartz lie about, either washed out 
from the hillside by rain-made landslips, or forming in a 
plain the last relics of a bygone hill that has long resisted 
disintegration. In the bed of the river there are many 
rocks of clay, slate. Basalt also enters into the geological 
formation of the country, and on the river above Stanley 
Pool the rocks appear volcanic. Iron is abundant 
throughout the Congo basin — ^many of the rocks are 
streaked with ferruginous stains — and is known and used 
by the natives, who call it mputo. Neither silver nor gold 
are known by the Congo people. When shown gold by a 
European they take it for inferior copper. 

Topazes are said to be found near Bolobo, as I have 
mentioned in my account of that place. I have never, 
however, seen any precious stone of any kind in the 
possession of the natives ; flakes of mica I have noticed 
among some of their charms. 



226 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

The fauna and flora of the Congo region between the 
Stanley Falls, which lie almost in the centre of the con- 
tinent, and the coast, are by no means uniform, and may 
be said to offer three distinct aspects, caused by the 
character of the regions through which the Congo flows. 

What may be known as the first region extends from 
the sea-coast some eighty miles at most inland, and 
belongs to the marshy forest belt that stretches all along 
the western littoral of Africa from Cabe^a de Cobra, fifty 
miles south of the Congo mouth, to the river Gambia in 
Upper Guinea. This swampy area, where mammals and 
birds are remarkable for their peculiar forms rather than 
for richness in species, prevails along the lower river un- 
interruptedly from the coast as far as Ponta da Lenha, 
about fifty miles from the sea, and further extends, some- 
what modified in character, to Boma and beyond, where it 
insensibly mingles with the next, or "cataract'' region, 
which is characteristic of the parallel mountain chains 
extending from the Upper Ogowe right down the continent 
into Southern Angola, and separating the central plateau 
or basin of tropical Africa from the strip of low-lying 
coast-land bordering the sea. In this mountain district, 
which commences some little distance beyond Boma, and 
may be said to include all the cataracts or rapids of the 
Congo as far as Stanley Pool, the fauna and flora are of a 
more generalised type than those of the first and third 
regions, and partake more of the fauna and flora pre- 
vailing in Angola and Lower Guinea. Finally, the 
influence of this somewhat poor region of stony hills and 
rocky boulders fades away before the splendid richness 
of the central plateau, and at Stanley Pool new forms 
characteristic of Central Equatorial Africa make their 
appearance ; and so abrupt is the change, that the upper 
end of Stanley Pool more resembles the regions of the 
Welle and the western littoral of Tanganyika in its 
natural history, especially in its flora, than the tract of 
country twenty miles ofi*, which begins with the first 
cataract at the lower end of the Pool. Though I have 
not layselt 'peni\tr2i\^A farther than about 2° 30' south of 



CLIMATE AND NATURAL HISTORY. 227 

the equator, yet, by comparing my observations with 
those of Stanley along the Upper Congo, and Schwein- 
furth on the Welle, I have arrived at the conclusion that 
there is no sensible difference in the fauna and flora 
throughout the great basin in which the Congo flows 
between Stanley Pool and the Stanley Falls ; nay, that 
over that vast tract of country there is more uniformity 
in forms of life than between the cataract region and 
the coast. 

Before describing the most striking features of Cofigo 
Natural History, I would like to remove as far as possible 
the erroneous idea that the Congo is a natural boundary 
in the distribution of certain forms, or that it even acts 
as a limitation southwards of the so-called West African 
region. I have read in many works on Africa, or on the 
distribution of plants and animals, that the Congo' was 
the southern boundary of the habitat of the grey parrot, 
the anthropoid apes, and the oil-palm (Flats guineensis). 
Now the grey parrot reaches perhaps its great develop- 
ment in Malanje, a district of Angola nearly 300 miles 
south of the Congo, and, together with the oil-palm, 
continues to be found as far as the tenth degree south of 
the equator; while the anthropoid apes can hardly be 
said to be limited southward in their distribution by the 
lower course of the Congo, for they do not reach even to 
its northern bank, or approach it nearer than Landana, 
100 miles away. Near the equator it is possible that 
gorillas are found both north and south of the Congo, 
and we know that a species of anthropoid ape is found 
to the west of the Lualaba at Nyangwe.* Again, the 
harnessed antelope (TragelapJms scriphcs) and the red 
buffalo (Bos brachyceros), both supposed to be purely 
West African or " Cis-Congo " forms, are found on the 
Quanza river, which lies about 200 to 300 miles south- 
ward of the Congo, while other West African species do 
not extend beyond the equator, and therefore are un- 
known along the Congo in its lower course. There are, 

* And up to the west and south-west shores of Tan%jMi'^\k'^ ^cci\^^Cka 
vicinity of Lake Mweru. — H. H, J. 



228 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

besides, many West African plants which stretch right 
away from the Gambia, across the Congo, into Angola on 
the south. In short, I have never seen any difference 
between the fauna and flora of the northern and southern 
banks of this great river ; nor do I believe that it acts in 
any way as a limitation to the range of species. 

I will conclude this chapter with a slight sketch of the 
Botany of the Western Congo, first noting a few striking 
(not rare) genera which form general features in the land- 
scapes. The Leguminous order is especially prominent, 
as represented by its sub-orders Papilionacece, Ccesalpinice, 
and Mimosece. Among the most noticeable genera of 
Papilionacece may be mentioned Zonchocarpus, with its 
ground masses of mauve blossoms (Z. sericeus), Bhyncosia, 
with bright red flowers ; Cajanus indicus, Baphia, and the 
really beautiful, poetical Camoensia, aptly named, of 
which an illustration heads this chapter. Among the 
Ccesalpinice, the genus Erythrophlceum^ represented by a 
towering tree, sometimes 60, 70, and even 100 feet in 
height, is remarkable for its intensely poisonous bark. 
The Mimosece are of course abundant. In this sub-order 
the genera ParJda and Acacia furnish many fine forest 
trees. Another large tree is Parinarium excelsum, a 
member of the Rosacea^, which possesses fruit that are just 
edible. Among the Connaracea^, Cnestis stands out 
prominently, with its brilliant scarlet or orange seed- 
vessels. The beautiful Mussmnda is a large and well- 
represented genus of Eubiaceous shrubs, and the large 
order of Compositcc offer many striking floral displays. 
The MaUows can exhibit such remarkable genera as the 
far-spread Adansonia, the gaudy-flowered Hibiscus, and 
the great forest trees, Eriodendron and Bombax. Among 
the Monocotyledons, the orchid group finds a splendid 
representative in the genus Lissochilus, which grows 
abundantly in the marshy regions of the Lower Eiver, 
and in a modified form over a portion of the cataract 
country. It is the most magnificent member of the 
Congo flora. The Lilies are not very noticeable on the 
Congo, Their most striking example is Crinum zeylani- 



CLIMATE AND NATURAL BI8T0RY. 229 

cum (see Chapter XI.). Among the Commdynacece, 
Commelyna is one of the commonest genera, displaying 
everywhere its beautiful deep-blue flowers, and more 
rarely a white-petalled form. Aloes are abundant, and 
here and there a fine form of Draccenay D. sapocMrumJd, 
is seen. Costus and Amomum ofier their delicately- 
coloured flowers constantly to the view, those of the 
former being surrounded with many scaly bracts, and 
the inflorescence of the latter appearing, without any 
accompanying leaves, just on a level with the soil. The 
Banana, which is so abundantly cultivated by the natives, 
represents the genus Musa, but I doubt whether it is 
indigenous to Africa, or this part of Africa. There is no 
truly wild species on the Congo, and all the cultivated 
ones produce no seed.* 

Among the Palms seven genera may be met with — 
CocoSy BorassvyS, Hyphcene, Phcenix, JRapJiia, Mais, and 
Calamus. Cocos, the Cocoanut-palm, is possibly not 
indigenous to South Africa, though it is abundantly found 
along the coast. It never penetrates more than a few 
miles inland. The Borassus palms (B, flabelliformis) are 
also confined to the estuary of the Congo ; farther inland 
they are replaced by Hyphmne guine'ensis. In the cataract 
region proper there are no Borassine or Hyphoenoid palms, 
but at Stanley Pool a new Hyphcene appears, differing 
materially from H, guiuc'ensis of the Lower river, and 
probably identical with H, ventricosa of the Upper 
Zambezi. It has a swollen stem, bluish-green fronds, and 
yellow fruit about the shape and size of a large apple, 
with a thin sweet pulp surrounding a hard ivory-like 
stone. Of this fruit the elephants are immoderately 
fond. This palm is illustrated at p. 142. The genus 
Phcenix, rendered celebrated by its distinguished repre- 
sentative the Date-palm,t is only present on the extreme 
Lower Congo in the form of Phcenix spinosa. Raphia 

* I rather question the accuracy of this statement. I think that a 
species of Musi allied to Musa Ensete may be found wild in parts of 
the Congo basin. — H. H. J. 

t jP. dactyliftra, _ 



230 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO, 

vinifera is met with all along the river, but is not so 
abundant or largely used by the natives for wine-making 
as in Western Africa farther north. On the other hand, 
the sap of Mais (/uineensis, the graceful oil-palm, is 
largely drunk by the Congo peoples, and is called by the 
same name throughout the Congo basin, from Nyangwe to 
the sea : viz. " malafu." * A somewhat similar name, 
" ma-lebu " or " ma-rebu," is given to the sap of the 
Hi/phmne, Both these words are plurals, and the singular 
forms — " ilafu," and " irebu " or " ilebu " — are given to 
the tree itself. Finally there is the genus Calamus, 
which only appears on the river Congo at and above 
Stanley Pool. The species there found is Calamus 
secundijloris. It is illustrated in all its stages of growth 
and fruiting at p. 122. 

Amongst the Graminem there are many important 
genera, too numerous to describe in detail. Andropogoriy 
Olyra, Pennisetum and others are noticeable from their 
abundance. The Papyrus is found in quantities on 
Stanley Pool and in all the quiet reaches of the river. 
Pistia stratioteSj a member of the order Lemnacew, abounds, 
as on most tropical streams. Lastly, among the Filices 
there are tree-ferns (I do not know what genus) to be seen 
in the cataract region, and the bracken (Pteris) is omni- 
present. 

On the whole, the flora of the Lower Congo is, as one 
might imagine, half-way between that of Upper and Lower 
Guinea. The mountainous cataract country between Vivi 
and Stanley Pool is almost identical with Angola, while 
the low-lying marshy district near the coast is like the 
littoral of Senegambia and the Niger delta. The Upper 
Congo between Stanley Pool and Nyangwe is much of the 
same character, like the Gold Coast and the great forest 
belt of Western Africa which stretches northward to the 
Upper Shari, the Benue, the Kong mountains and the 
Gambia. Although the Congo offers nothing, as we yet 
know, that is unique as genus or family, yet probably 

* Vide Stanley, * Dark Continent,' pp. 77 et seq. ; and Chaptsrs 111. 
and IV, of this hook. 



CLIMATE Alf^D NATtJl^AL HlSTOBY. 231 

nowhere in Africa are there such magnificent displays of 
colour formed by the conspicuous flowering trees and 
plants. Here, at any rate, no one can maintain that the 
temperate zone can oflFer anything equal in the way of 
flower-shows. Many of the blossoms also exhale strong 
odours, sometimes very ofiensive, but also, I am glad to 
say, in many cases fragrant and delicious. Few perfumes 
are more pleasing than the clove-like smell of the 
Cainoensia, or the balmy scent of the Baphias, 



232 A JOURNEY UP TUE RIVER CONGO. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

NATURAL HISTORY. 

Ektumology of the District — Lepidoptera — Their easy Capture 
— BuTTERi LY Bait — List of Species most common — Beetles — 
Locusis — Ephemeridje — The Mason Wasp — Ants — The Jigger 
— Flies — Spiders — Mollusca — Crustacea — Ichthyology — 
Batrachians — IIeptiles — Crocodiles — 'J'hb Spur-winged 
Flover — Tortoises — Lizards — Snakes. 

One of the prettiest sights as you voyage up the Congo, 
and coast some sandy bank or smooth low-lying shore, is 
to see the moist ground covered with myriads of brightly- 
coloured butterflies, clustered like beautiful blossoms in 
some parterre, round the more humid depressions in the 
soil, settling there apparently to suck up the moisture and 
quench what appears to be a perpetual thirst. So absorbed 
are they in this occupation that they seem well-nigh 
unconscious of possible danger, and you may walk quietly 
up to them, and, selecting your victims, seize them by the 
thorax, pinch and pop them into your collecting box ; by 
the time this is done, the other butterflies, momentarily 
disturbed by your incursion, will have settled again, and 
you can pursue your work of slaughter. Or, if you like a 
more wholesale mode of capture, you can drop your net 
down on a cluster, and secure about twenty butterflies at 
once. This, however, has its inconveniences. Not only is 
it difficult to prevent the agitated insects from damaging 
themselves as they all struggle together, but you may also 
include in your netful a number of nasty little wasps or 
big droning bees, that will spitefully sting you through the 
gauze of the net when you are trying to carefully secure 
the best of the butterflies. 0£ couis^, m^wy o£ U\e Lepi- 



ifAfuRAL msTonr. 233 

floptera rarely settle on the ground, and are hopelessly 
high flyers, never pausing for rest, save an the topmost 
boughs and flowers of the high trees. Others, though 
flying low, haunt intricate brushwood, where the net 
can only be manipulated with great difficulty, if at all. 




This locale is very characteristic of a moat naagnificent 
crimson moth, a day-flying insect, which I have seen many 
recurring times, but never been able to secure, for the 
reason that it enters a tangle thorny bush where ca.'jtvss*. 
is impossible. Here it sita coni.^\a,fte,'[v\\^ , ■nn'^. i^Kt-isi.^ "v;! 



234 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

attract attention by the magnificent carmine of the upper 
side of the wings, although their underside is leaf-brown 
and " protective " in colour, and, if the creature liked, 
would, when closed, render it quite indistinguishable from 
the dead and scrubby foliage it haunts. 

There is one " bait " for butterflies which attracts the 
proudest and shyest amongst them — blood. Sprinkle the 
gore of a newly-slain animal .over any cleared space, and 
you will soon reap a rich result in the way of butterflies. 
They also flock to most decaying substances, animal or 
vegetable, and the deposits of elephant's dung in the forest 
will be the frequent resorts of these lovely insects. The 
genus Pajyilio is of course well represented, and by some 
very beautiful examples. There is PapUio Antheus, tailed, 
black, with green spots and stripes ; PapUio Bromius, large 
and black, with broad bluish-green stripe crossing both 
wings (this last is dotted on the underside with dead-gold 
spots) ; and PapUio Tyndara^us, very scarce species, black 
and apple-green, a very handsome insect. 

A list of the most prominent species of Lepidoptera to 
be met with in the Upper and Lower Congo I here give. 
Most of them are represented in my own collection, a few 
others have been added from a collection of butterflies 
from the Lower Congo in the possession of my brother. I 
might remark that nearly all the species and all the genera 
here cited have a wide range, being found on the Gold 
Coast, the East of Africa, and even in Natal. The butter- 
flies of the Upper Congo, above Stanley Pool, seem how- 
ever to be more purely West African in their range than 
those of the Lower river, which extend southwards and 
northwards, and right across the Continent, reappearing at 
the Cape of the Zanzibar coast and in Senegambia. One 
curious instance of wide distribution is the little species 
Eurema Hecabe, which is found all over Africa and India, 
specimens from Southern India and the Congo being 
identical in size and markings. 

Besides the Lepidoptera catalogued below, there are 
many day-flying moths observable in the Congo, most of 
which are Bombycidce. Tliete \s «X^o ^ cwxioua qpnus 



NATURAL HISTORY. 235 

(Paradooca ?) with delicate, whitish, semi-transparent 
\sdngs, which frequents the densest forests. 

LIbT OF COMMON CONGO BUTTERFLIES. 

Family I. — Nymphalidt'e. 

DaDais limniacia3, D. Chrysippus, Amauris Damocles, A. Niavius, 
Ypthima Asterope, Gnopbodes Parmeno, MelataDio Leda, Mycalesis 
Safitza, Elymnias Phegea, Acrasa Zetes, A. Scrina, A. Gea, A. Euryta, 
A. Egina, A. Pseudegina, Atella Phalantn, Junonia Coenio, Precio 
Pelarga, P. (? species), Hypanio llithya, Cyrestes Camillus, Hypo- 
lemnas Misippus, H. dubius, H. Anthedon, Catima Critbea, Neptio 
Agatha, Euvepbene Sopbus, E. Cocalia, E. Plan til la, Euphoedra Eleus, 
E. Ravola, E. Ceres, E. Themis, E. Medon, E. Xypete, Ateiica 
Tadema, A. Afer, A. Cupavia, Ai (? species), Cymotlioe Theodata, 
C. Theobene, C. Ccenio, Nymphalis Epbyra. 

Family III. — Lycaenid£e. 
Liptina Acrsea, L. undularis. 

Family IV. — Papilonidse. 

Pontia Alcesta, Eurema Brigitta, E. Hecabe, Tracbyrio Saba, T. 
Sylvia, T. Agatbina, Catopsilla Florella, Papilio Leonidas, P. Tynda- 
raeus, P. Demoleus, P. Policenes, P. Antbeus, P. Nireus, P. Pylades, 
P. Bromius, P. Merope, P. Ecberoides. 

Family V. — ^Hesperidaj. 
Isme Florestan, I. (? species). 

Amongst the beetles the Longicoms are well represented, 
and there appears to be a genus allied to or identical with 
the Xenocerus of Malaysia. There are many species of 
Gryllidce, some of them with antennae six inches in length, 
and all possessing alike in the pupa and imago stages 
most complicated arrangements for making a hideous 
noise. There are some of these creatures on the Upper 
river that absolutely prevent your sleeping with the shrill 
strident whistle and " skreeking *' that they make. 

The Blattidce are too well represented* Whether one 
of them, that is most distinctly Blatta orientaiis (our 
black-beetle), has been introduced from the East ot: v^ 
indigenous, I cannot say, but \\i\9» diSa^ofiNAsi^ ^s^^^^^ "^ 



236 A JOVItNEY UP THE ItlVER CONGO. 

everywhere numerous. Fortunately the red ants make it 
their mission in life to eat these disagreeably odorous 
pests, and many lizards also make them an article of diet. 

Locusts of many species abound, and are often very 
beautiful in colour. Of course the Mantidcc are well 
represented, and some of them are frequently of great size 
and fierceness. One small species is a beautiful insect, 
having on the lower part of each wing a large eye or spot, 
black and pink, on a green ground, and seeming as if 
painted in body colour. Walking-stick insects of every 
size are found, all of them marvellous in their imitation 
of twigs. The dragon-flies of course are beautiful, and 
many species of Calepteryx (Demoiselles) are banded with 
chocolate or blue-green on their wings. 

In certain places, and on certain nights, there are 
myriads of Ephemcridcc dying round you in such quan- 
tities as to cover the surface of everything. In their 
efforts to die gloriously they completely put the candles 
out, crowding round the wick and causing it to splutter 
itself away. I detest these insects — there is something so 
inane about them. Their pale-green bodies and stupid 
black eyes have a " cheap " look in their appearance, and 
give you the idea that so many are turned out by contract 
that the manufacturers cannot be particular as to finish. 

There are many honey-making bees, and wasps of every 
size and nearly every colour abound, some making paper 
nests, others, like the mason wasp, building their habita- 
tions and storehouses with clay. This mason wasp is, of 
course, very abundant (as it is everywhere in West 
Africa), and builds its clay cells on any available support 
that it can find, especially preferring to place them 
between the projecting covers of books and in the sleeves 
of unworn garments. Here it stores away the green 
caterpillars and little spiders that its newly-hatched 
wasplings feed on in the larval stage. To those who keep 
insect-eating birds these storages of the mason wasp are 
very convenient, as you can always find in their clay cells 
a constant supply of insect food ready gathered to your 
band. The male of this sped^i^ W^ iLo\ ^ lo\i^ time 



NA TUBAL HISTORY, 237 

remained undetermined, many supposing it to live para- 
sitically on other insects. I believe, however, that I have 
seen it in a very tiny black wasp, so small as to be taken 
for a black fly, but perfectly capable of stinging if caught 
and much resembling the female in miniature. The white 
Termites are of course as prevalent here as everywhere in 
tropical Africa, and work the same mischief to all wooden 
buildings. 

Amongst the ants is a species of Ponera* (perhaps 
P. grandis) and a terrible red ant, called by the Zanzibaris 
" maji moto " or " hot water," from the terrible scalding 
sensation its bite produces. When a great army of these 
ants takes a dwelling-house in its line of march it is wiser 
to clear out and leave them the road free. At the same 
time, a cordon of hot wood ashes does a great deal to 
make them turn from their road. Many species of small 
ants work terrible mischief amongst one's collections, 
devouring dried plants, entomological specimens, and 
skinned birds with equal relish and despatch. Fatal also 
is it to leave your sugar or sweet things open and un- 
protected ; once you do so, you must be content to throw 
them away, or eat them under the form of compote de 
fourmis, for the masses of gluttonous ants find sweet 
suicide in these saccharine pitfalls. 

I am glad to say that the common flea is unknown on 
the Upper Congo, or anywhere on this river; in fact, 
where Portuguese influence has not spread. But, lest this 
exemption from such an odious pest might make Central 
African man too contented with his mundane existence, 
kind Providence has introduced from America into these 
too happy regions a terrible creature — the "jigger," 
" chigoe," or " burrowing flea " {Sarcopsylhcs penetrans). 
Making its first appearance on the West African coasts at 
Ambriz in 1855, this horrible little jigger has spread all 
over Western Africa from Sierra Leone to Mossamedes 
with astonishing rapidity. Its progress inland, though as 
certain, is less speedy than along the coast. However, it 

* This large ant exlialea a most disgusting odour; especially tnIslsxs. 
crushed. 



238 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

has now mounted the Congo nearly as far as the equator,* 
and was beginning already to be a well-known pest at 
Bolobo at the time of my arrival there, although as yet 
the suflFering natives had hardly given it a name. The 
"jigger," which is scarcely bigger than a pin*s head, 
burrows under the skin of the feet and hands, and there 
in its little cell surrounds itself with a sack of eggs. Its 
presence is soon made evident by the pain and itching it 
occasions, and it is visible as a small blue point in a circle 
of white under the skin. If removed soon after discovery 
it occasions comparatively little inconvenience, but should 
you delay the eggs will hatch, and a multitude of little 
fleas will honeycomb your flesh. Neglect may cause the 
whole foot to rot away and mortify. The jigger is best 
removed by a sharply-pointed piece of wood, and care 
must be taken in so doing not to break the egg sack, lest 
the eggs escape into the wound, and, hatching there, cause 
it to fester. 

There are many fine cicadas on the Congo, especially 
about Stanley Pool, where one large species is eaten by the 
natives. This insect is four inches in length, and has 
" drums " near the base of the abdomen in the male. 

Many species of flies add to the small plagues of the 
Upper river. One, very little and black, sucks the skin 
until a point of blood as large as itself comes to the 
surface. Another big dun-coloured fly gives a very 
painful, itchy bite, especially on the hand. When I was 
painting studies and sketches in oil-colours this fly 

* Since the above was written, the Jigger has rapidly advanced 
across Africa, and even now has reached Zanzibar, it is said. In 
1886, it began to be noticed on the Upper Congo, at the Stanley 
Falls. In 1888, it had reached the west coast of Tanganyika, and 
in 1892 the north coast of Lake Nyasa and the shores of the Victoria 
Nyanza. During the past year, 1894, it has spread all over Nyasa- 
land, and is now to be found on the Lower Zambezi. In a few months 
all the native postmen in the service of the British Central Africa 
Protectorate, have been more or less lamed from its attacks. It is 
always at its worst, however, during the first two or three years after 
its arrival in a new country ; then it seems to be checked, or modified 

in its increase, or even actually to die out altogetLer in moist 

localities. — H, U, J. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 239 

annoyed me dreadfully, for it would creep on to the palm 
of the left hand, which held the palette, and sting or 
rather probe me so violently with its proboscis that, with 
my start of pain and surprise, I would often dash the 
palette away. Other flies that do not bite annoy you 
fully as much by continually buzzing about your ears and 
neck, and resisting all your efforts to drive them away. 

As a corollary to the abundance of flies are the 
numerous spiders. I always rather enjoyed seeing a 
spider kill a fly in England — ^the spider is so thoroughly 
cool and practical, and the fly so very weak-minded — but 
my enjoyment was much enhanced on the Congo, and I 
looked upon the spiders as my personal friends. Curiously 
enough, the nickname the natives gave me was " Bui," or 
" The Spider," not, I tliink, from any physical resem- 
blance, but "because I was always catching flies and 
other insects." There seem to be several species belong- 
ing or related to the genus Mygale, and some of these are 
very large and often very beautiful. One big mygaloid 
spider was velvety blue-black in colour. I also observed 
many specimens of Lycosa, of Ciniflo (?), of Scytodes, and 
the terrible Solpuga or Galeodes, Scorpions are met with, 
but are not abundant. 

Centipedes (Scolopendra) are very common and very 
poisonous. They haunt dry wood, and in the crevices of 
the logs that the natives collect to make their fires many 
of these creatures lurk, and sting the native as he drags 
the wood along. The innocuous millipedes {Zephronia ?) 
are seen everywhere. 

Of the molluscs I have little to say, except that some 
of the snails have most beautifully-decorated shells, and 
would well repay a collector, and that not a few of the 
slugs assume very brilliant tints of orange and scarlet, 
doubtless because they are nasty, and can afford to be 
bold and showy to warn off possible dcvourers. There is 
a kind of fresh-water shrimp in the liOwer river much 
liked by the natives, by whom they are caught, cooked, 
pounded up in a mortar with salt — shells and all — and 
used as a seasoning with various foim^ oi. N^«^^\a>^^ 1<^^^, 



240 A JOUBNET UP TEE BIVER CONGO. 

Land crabs are numerous near the estuary of the Congo, 
especially inhabiting the mangrove Svv^amps along the 
tidal river. They are amongst the weirdest things on a 
tropic shore, as they emerge from their holes in the black 
mud and march forth in armies after the retreating tide, 
rushing at the garbage strewn upon the ooze, and 
devouring everything devourable with unflagging appetite. 
Then, as the step of a human being approaches, they 
scuttle back to their many burrows of divers size and 
depth, and appear and disappear so rapidly that they seem 
like some formal illusion of the " zoetrope." It is great 
fun to intercept an unfortunate land -crab on the way back 
to his burrow. He knows perfectly well which is his, and 
would immediately make for it; but if you urge and 
exasperate him, and poke him up with your stick (not 
carrying your humour so far as to hurt the poor crusta- 
cean), he will in despair try to enter the retreat of one of 
his fellows, who will so smartly and spitefully repel him 
that you may out of pity stand aside, and let him race off 
to his own hole and pop down it in a trice. Sometimes a 
large crab pursued will make for too small a burrow, and 
get stuck at the opening, in whicli case, brought to bay, 
he uses his unequal-sized claws like a boxer, shielding 
himself with one and nipping with the other. 

A river like the Congo naturally abounds in fish, but 
very little is as yet known about its ichthyology. It 
seems, however, from the data we possess, to resemble 
greatly the Upper Nile, and to offer many identical species 
and genera. There are many clupeoid, cyprinoid, and 
percoid forms. The siluroid group is represented by 
several species, among them the huge " bagre " * of the 
Portuguese, a fish with a smooth, shiny skin and a large 
flat head, in which the eyes, very small and colourless, are 
placed wide apart. At each corner of the mouth there is 
a long reversed tentacle. Also a ganoid, Folyptervs, very 
common and very spiteful. I give an illustration here, 
engraved from my original study. This fish had the 

* Bogrus 8p. 



UTATTTRAL mSTOEY. 241 

lower part of the back armed with nine erectile spines,* 
joined together by a web, and with the fins marked by 
zebra-like stripes. Then there was one superb creature, a 
fish with great tusk-like teeth — teeth that resemble in 
shape, but are somewhat larger than, a dog's canines. 
This fish is figured in Stanley's ' Dark Continent ' under 
the name of the " Livingstone pike," although I do not 
myself think it bears any resemblance or affinity to the 
pike family, but rather approaches Hydrocyon,^ and offers 
many points in common with Serrasalmus pirayx or 
Erythrinus macrodoii — fish belonging to the rivers of 
Guiana and other portions of the west coast of South 



1 

1 


^ ^^^i0t.«^All^A 




4E^ 




r 









America. This particular specimen of the Congo was a 
rosy-pink over the upper part of the body, greyish-white 
below, and was 3 ft. 7 in. in length.J Another curious 
Congo fish has the jaws prolonged into a sort of proboscis, 
with a sucker at the end. 

Finally, I have often heard of Protopterus from Euro- 
peans, who averred they had seen it, but although I 
searched in many a muddy stream and pool I was to the 
end unrewarded by its capture or discovery. 

Of the Batrachians I saw but few examples. The 
African bull-frog is occasionally noticed (Touropterna 

* The number is variable. 

t Possibly it may belong to this genus. 

X See illustration, p. 246. 



242 A JOUBNEY UP TEE BIVER CONGO, 

adspersa ?), and I have also observed Bana fasdata, 
Cystignathus senegalensis, and a species of Discoglossus. 
Amongst toads there are Bufo tuberosus, Brachymerus 
hifdsdatus (the pretty little two-striped toad), and others 
which I could not name or identify. 

When you come to consider the Eeptiles of the Upper 
Congo, the crocodile is the first to attract your attention, 
because he is the member of that class with which you 
most come into contact, and also because he is one of the 
principal dangers in river travelling, being continually on 
the look-out for a meal when there appears to be any 
likelihood of a boat accident. The natives say that when 
the fearful wind storms or tornadoes take place on the 
Congo during the rainy season, the crocodiles follow 
closely in the wake of the wave-tossed canoes, hoping 
that, ere they can reach the shelter of the bank, the wind, 
as it often does, may blow them over with their human 
freight, and throw a choice of limbs in the crocodile's way. 
It is curious that the crocodiles in this river rarely do 
more than lop oflF an arm or a leg from their human 
victims in the water, leaving the rest of the unhappy 
creature to attain the shore, if he still live, minus the loss 
of an arm or leg ; that is to say, unless he has to run the 
gauntlet of other crocodiles and become a limbless trunk. 
But I do not know so much that it is a curious custom on 
the part of these monsters as that it indicates a consider- 
able amount of common-sense. Half a loaf is better than 
no bread, and I think the crocodile does wisely to lop off 
a limb with his steel-trap-like jaws, and go away quietly 
with his honne Louche, rather than struggle for the whole 
body in a fatiguing contest, during which either the native 
might (as they are traditionally supposed to do) plunge 
his thumbs into the eyes of his foe, and thus force him to 
relinquish his hold in agony, or stick his knife into the 
crocodile's belly; or his friends, having had time for 
reflection, might decide to interfere and beat off the 
crocodile with their spears or paddles. Of course if a man 
is thus maimed he very rarely reaches land alive ; but I 
once saw an individual who, after leaving an arm in a 



NA TUBAL BISTORT, 243 

leviathati's jaws, did not succumb to the shock or the 
rapid current, but reached the shore and lived to tell 
the tale. 

When the sun shines brightly, and the day is still and 
hot, then the crocodiles by preference leave the water, and 
repair to some sand-bank or open beach, where they lie 
and hake, rather than bask, in the sun, its fierce heat soon 
drying up their wet scales, and completely changing their 
colour from a dark green-brown, tree-like in tone, to a 
light dust-grey, precisely the colour of the boulders of 
rock that strew the sandy shore. Indeed, the crocodile's 
power of assimilation to his surroundings stands him in 
wonderful stead to deceive his victims and to mislead his 
only enemy — man. When he lies listlessly floating on 
the surface of the tepid water, half dreamily enjoying the 
sun's warmth and his slow motion with the current, it is 
hard to take him for aught but another of the many 
torn-up logs and branches that are being carried along by 
the river ; for, like them, he submits to be gently rolled 
over and over as if an imresisting victim, and he too is 
dark greenish brown, and somewhat jagged in aspect. It 
is only when the too regular serration of his back and tail 
are noticed, or that he attracts your attention by a sudden 
motion, that you distinguish in him a more interesting 
and dangerous object than a mere floating log. Again, 
when the crocodile is lying on the sandy shore, he seems 
merely a ledge of rock, grey and rough, like the fragments 
of stone around him. When this reptile lies on the sand 
he has a way of so tucking his limbs into him and lying 
prone and flat, with so little variation in his outline that 
it is small wonder that you take him for an inanimate 
object ; nor does movement on his part quickly undeceive 
you, for he glides so smoothly towards the water that, 
before you realize that the " log " is taking itself off, a 
splash and the wave of a serrated tail enlighten you as to 
the real character of the phenomenon. The tail of the 
crocodile is, as you know, a terrible weapon. With it, if 
effectively employed, he can stun or kill a man in the 
water, and unwary victims who stand too neax tbA, \5«s^ 



244 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

may be swept into the water by a sudden sweeping fling 
of it. I remember on the Eiver Quanza, in Angola, 
meeting with an illustration of this. The river steamer 
on which I was travelling was moored close to the shore, 
and a plank laid just over the water between the deck and 
the river bank, over which the " krumen " went backwards 
and forwards with cargo. Towards dusk one of these 
niggers was crossing the plank with a load on his head, 
when a hitherto unseen crocodile whisked up his tail and 
swept the unhappy wretch into the water. He was re- 
covered, for the crocodile himself seemed rather frightened 
at his own boldness, and abandoned the man after a brief 
struggle ; but the poor wretch had all his bowels crushed 
by one grip of the crocodile's jaws, and barely lived to 
reach the shore. 

It is really true that the crocodile is accompanied and 
'* protected " by a little wading bird, which utters a shrill 
warning cry if its mailed friend, sleeping with a peaceful 
grin of satiety lurking about his cruel jaws, is menaced by 
approaching foes. This little bird, the spur- winged plover, 
Lohivanellus albiceps (known in Egypt as the zik-zak), lives 
on terms of the greatest intimacy with the crocodiles, and, 
when they lie basking on the sand-flats, the birds perch 
on their backs and hop freely about the recumbent 
monsters. What return they receive at the hands of their 
strange allies for the vigilant care they take of them 
when ashore I cannot say. It used to be supposed that 
the zik-zak plover was allowed the privilege of acting as 
the crocodile's toothpick ; and other travellers, who thought 
this a somewhat repellent office, asserted that the bird 
merely removed the worms and leeches that crept into the 
soft parts of the crocodile's jaw. I can only say for my 
part that, although the spur-winged plover is with the 
crocodile during all the time it spends on land, I have 
never yet witnessed it taking a meal from out of those 
formidable jaws. 

Before I leave the crocodiles, I might mention that the 
ordinary and most common species is the common African 
crocodile {C^^ocodUus vulgaris), but 1 have seen some 



NATUBAL MISTOBY. 245 

species which, from their great concavity of forehead, 
appeared to be C, marginatus. I also once saw, near 
Bolobo, the half-decayed head of an African gavial with 
a narrow snout, possibly Medstops Bennettii. 

Land tortoises are rarely seen on the Congo ; but a 
curious aquatic species of THonyx, possibly T, niloticus 
(the so-called soft turtle), is commonly found. This is a 
very curious tortoise, possessing a droll probiscis, which 
has rather a perky turned-up look. When the animal is 
in the water he generally sinks entirely below the surface, 
leaving only his nostrils, at the end of tliis probiscis, 
above the water; thus he may remain concealed for a 
long time ready to pounce on his victims, which may 
either be insects flying low over the water, small aquatic 
birds, or even, they say, young crocodOes emerging from 
the egg. I had one of these curious creatures given me 
once by a native on the Upper river, and I kept it in cap- 
tivity during several months, until it became quite tame, 
and distinctly increased in size, for when I first received it 
it was only four inches in length. It fed on worms and 
decaying meat, and throve so well that I fully hoped to 
bring it back with me to Europe, and had, indeed, started 
with the trionyx on my homeward journey. One day, 
however, he had disappeared from my canoe, and, on 
making inquiries among the men, I found to my horror 
that one of the krumen, impelled by some unnatural burst 
of hunger, had roasted and eaten him! Not even the 
hearty " whacking " I gave the delinquent could console 
me for the loss of this interesting creature. 

The fine monitor lizards are well represented on the 
Congo. Apparently the two principal species are Monitor 
niloticus and M, alhogularis. This latter is a really hand- 
some creature, brightly pied with dark-brown and white, 
and is often six feet in length when adult. The young 
specimens appear to be much brighter in colour than the 
adults, the white spots being yellowish and the brown 
markings greenish black. They are often captured by the 
natives, despite their ferocity, and brought for sala- "Bm^^s. 
when quite young they requite \.o \i^ ^^^ orsv Xv^^^ *lss^^> 



246 



A JOURNEY UP THE MIVER COSQO. 



Though, fortunately, these lizards are not provided with 
any serious means of attack, they prove really redoubtable 
foes in a contest with men or dogs, using the pliant tail as 
a terribly efficient swish, and biting savagely ^vith their 
small teeth. They are capable of killing a dog, and of 
stripping the skin from a man's leg. In a wild state they 
eat small mammals, birds, frogs, and insects. I found in 
the stomach of one that I shot the remains of three 
squirrels. Amongst other lizards on the Congo may be 
remarked the following genera, passing over an immense 
number of species I have been unikble to identify : Acan- 
tkodadylns, the pretty little spine-foot ; Hremias, Zonunis 




eordylus, Ptyodactylus gecko, Tarentola mpensis. Uroprastix, 
spinipes, and Agama; also a very common and handsome 
lizard of which I do not know the name,* gaudily blue 
and red in colour, with a short and brittle tail, which is 
left in your hands should you capture him by that organ. 
Chameleons are, of course, very common, and exhibit 
many different species. 

Snakes, on the other hand, are decidedly rare, and it ia 
quite possible to voyage right up the Congo and return to 
Europe without the glimpse of a serpent. I did, however, 
in the course of my travels along this river, meet with 

• A, 6peo\ea ol Agaiiw, 



NATURAL HISTORY. ■ 247 

three specimens. One was a beautiful species of Hortulia, 
a Boine snake, quite harmless, and brilliantly marked 
with brown, yellow, and black rings, over which played a 
purple bloom or iridescence that faded after death. Then 
I saw a small specimen of the black African python, and 
a species of puff-adder, belonging probably to the 
venomous genus Clotho, 



246 



A JOUBNEY UP THE EIVER CONGO. 



Though, fortunately, these lizards are not provided with 
auy serious means of attack, they prove really redoubtable 
foes in a contest with men or dogs, using the pliant tail as 
a terribly efficient swish, and biting savt^ely with their 
small teeth. They are capable of killing a dog, and of 
stripping the skin from a man's leg. In a wild state they 
eat small mammals, birds, frogs, and insects. I found in 
the stomach of one that I shot the remainB of three 
squirrels. Amongst other lizards ou the Congo may be 
remarked the following genera, passing over an immense 
number of species I have been unable to identify ; Acan- 
ihodactylus, the pretty little spine-foot ; Eremias, Zonunts 




eordylus, Ptyodaetylus gecko, Tarentola capensis Uroprastix, 
spinipes, and Agwma, also a very common and handsome 
lizard of which I do not know the nami,* gaudily blue 
and red m colour, with a short and brittle tail, which is 
left in your hands should you capture him by that organ. 
Chameleons are, of course, very common, and exhibit 
many different species. 

Snakes, on the other hand, are decidedly rare, and it is 
quite possible to voyage right up the Congo and return to 
Europe without the glimpse of a serpent, I did, however, 
in the course of my travels along this river, meet with 

• i. species oi AgairuJ, 



NATURAL HISTORY, '' 247 

three specimens. One was a beautiful species of Hortulia, 
a Boine snake, quite harmless, and brilliantly marked 
with brown, yellow, and black rings, over which played a 
purple bloom or iridescence that faded after death. Then 
I saw a small specimen of the black African python, and 
a species of puff-adder, belonging probably to the 
venomous genus Clotho, 



248 A JOVBNEY VP TEE BIVER CONGO. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

NATURAL HISTORY — ORNITHOLOGY. 

Thk Fin-foot — Frigate Bjrds — Gannets — Pelicaks — Aquatic 
Birds at Stanley Pool — Gypohierax Vultures — Hawks — 
Rails and Plovers — The Crocodile's Friend — A Plover 
Family — Pigeons — Parrots — Rollers — Crows. 

The first bird of any note that I saw after arriving at 
Stanley Pool was a fin-foot (Podica). This curious creature, 
which is a type of one of those intermediary families from 
which, as it were, many more specialised forms diverge, is 
not common in West Africa. I have never observed it 
but once on the Congo, and that at Stanley Pool ; and 
liave only seen it elsewhere on the little Chiluango river, 
near Landana. The specimen that I examined at Leopold- 
ville (Stanley Pool) had been shot by a surly Grerman 
gardener attached to the expedition, who spent his spare 
time in collecting birds for certain Museums. He had no 
notion what the bird was ; but, seeing I prized it, not only 
refused to sell it to me, but would not even let me draw it, 
or dissect its carcase after it had been skinned, fearing lest 
I might forestall him in the discovery of a new species. 
Consequently, I am unable to do more than give a super- 
ficial description of its appearance. The general colour of 
this Podica was a dark mottled brown with green reflec- 
tions on the whole of the upper surface, while on the 
throat and belly it was a dirty white. Just above the eye 
was a streak of light colour, running from the base of the 
upper mandible to the ear, and beneath this a broader 
band of dark brown parallel T^itib. it. The breast wa^ 



NATUBAL BISTORT. 249 

Spotted with dark brown, and there were a few streaks of 
the same colour on Uie belly. The tail was about four 
inches long, and, at the time I saw it, was slightly ex- 
panded and resembled very much in general shape the tail 




SCHIZOBHIS aiOAKTfSA. 



of the darter {Plotus Levaillanti). On the central tail- 
feathers were a few faint white lines, nmning transversely. 
The beak and the feet were bright orange. The heak. 
resembled very much in shape the beak of the darter, and 
was very sharp at the point. The feet ^Nfttt isvw^ 'N^>4. ■^ 



25a A JOURNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO, 

gi'ebe's, each toe being lined with a membrane a quarter of 
an inch in width. The general appearance of the bird 
recalls at once the darters, the herons, the ducks, and the 
grebes. When swimming, it lies somewhat low in the 
water, and the neck, which is rather long and ''kinked," 
moves slowly backwards and forwards, as if poising the 
head to dart at a fish. On the river Chiluango, where I 
have seen it swimming among the mangrove stalks, little 
more than the neck was visible as it swam, and my com- 
panions in the boat took it at first for a snake raising its 
head from the water. The " darter " (Plotus Levaillantl) 
is one of the commonest birds on the Congo. It affects 
every piece of water, either forming cataracts, tranquil 
pools or stagnant marshes. A small cormorant is also 
frequently seen, but is not so universally abundant as the 
darter. About the Congo region, whether on the Upper 
river, the estuary, or the neighbouring coast, types of all 
the genera of the sub-order Pelicani may be met with. 
The frigate-bird {Fregata aquila) is not uncommonly seen 
off Banana Point, and the tropic-bird (Phcethon cethereus) is 
of even more frequent occurrence. As this latter breeds 
on the island of Sao Thome, he is not so far from home, 
off the Congo mouth. Then there is a gannet, Sula 
capensis, which occasionally visits the estuary of the 
Congo in myriads ; and, finally, the darters and cormorants 
are also represented on the river, together with the pelican. 
This giant member of the family is very partial in his 
distribution ; sometimes you find him in great quantities, 
as on Stanley Pool, and about the broadened stream at 
Bolobo, at other times he will be absent or unheard of over 
a hundred miles of river. On an unapproachable island 
above the Falls of Yelala, a colony of pelicans, apparently 
Pelicanus onocrotahcB, has established itself, and made the 
island — which, owing to the rapids, one could only reach 
by balloon — a great breeding-place, the shores of which 
are white with guano. While I was stopping at the Baptist 
Mission at Angu Angu, and afterwards at Vivi, two places 
nearly opposite to one another, a strange mortality seemed 
k) exist among the young pelicans, \i\i^% v& ot^^ ^'^•wt old^ 



NATURAL BISTORT. 251- 

and many of them came floating down the river, and were 
washed ashore dying or dead. There was no cause easily 
ascertainable, and this mortality among them reminded me 
of a similar thing that occurs on the l^outh-West African 
coast with the gannet (Stda capensis), sometimes called the 
whale- bird, which is often washed ashore dead in incredible 
quantities. In the Bay of Loanda I have counted often 
twenty dead gannets round the ship at a glance, and many 
of them are thrown up on to the beach both at Mossamedes 
and at Banana, the mouth of the Congo. After an 
epidemic like this, the sand is strewn wdth the carcases of 
these apparently uninjured birds, which in a few liours 
are almost consumed by the land crabs and the scapulated 
crows. 

Stanley Pool is a great place for aquatic birds. On the 
many islands that stud this beautiful expanse of the 
Congo you may see numbers of crowned cranes, marabou, 
saddle-billed, and common storks, Scopus umhretta, sacred 
ibises, giant herons, egrets, bitterns, darters, cormorants, 
spur-winged and Egyptian geese, pratincoles, and large 
terns with scarlet beaks. Mr. Stanley maintains that he 
has met with Balceniceps rex, the whale-headed stork, on 
the upper Congo,* and, as he describes the bird very 
accurately, I see no reason to doubt that he is correct in 
his assertion. In this case it would certainly extend the 
habitat of this curious Ardeine bird, hitherto supposed to 
solely inhabit the waters of the Upper Nile. 

A curious feature in Congo ornithology is the absence 
of all the vultures common to other parts of Africa. Per- 
haps this may be accounted for by the comparative 
scarcity of big game, and yet, for all that, there is plenty 
of animal refuse along the river-side to keep going more 
than the one species of vulture — if vulture he be — that 
the Congo possesses. This latter bird is known scienti- 
fically as Gypohierax, and is sometimes called the Angola 
vulture, although he is found equally and quite as abun- 
dantly in Senegambia or anywhere in West Africa between 

• YoL ii., p. 293, * BwV^ Coxi\:\xi^\i\? 



252 A JOUJRNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

the Kunen^ and the Senegal. Gypohierax is not a true 
vulture, but is a form related to the fish eagles, possibly 
also to the ospreys, and to that primitive raptorisd, Poly- 
horaides. He is no means a mere scavenger, but goes in 
ordinarily for a more refined and respectable line of life, 
though it is true that he adapts himself to all circum- 
stances and places, and can, if necessary, get through very 
dirty work. On the Congo, Gypohierax is extremely 
abundant, and here this accommodating bird has become a 
most accomplished fisherman, being much more deft in 
catching fish than the proper fishing-eagles (Rallcehis), 
who are to • the manner born. May Gypohierax prosper 1 
He has all my sympathy. He is one of those clever, 
adaptable creatures,. like the rat among mammals and the 
crow among birds, that can turn their hands, or rather 
their stomachs, to anything, and consequently are never 
at a loss for a living. It always annoyed me to see the 
way in which Europeans on the Congo massacred poor 
Gypohierax, He is a bold bird, conscious of well-doing, 
and in his mature black-and-white plumage (the young 
birds are dun-coloured) offers a very good mark to the 
neophyte's rifle. Consequently, scarcely does a party of 
newly-arrived Europeans ascend the river without " pop- 
ping " at the poor vulture as he sits on the topmost bough 
of a dead tree. The white-headed fishing-eagle is more 
often heard than seen. His vociferous, boisterous screams 
greet the rising and the setting sun ; but these birds will 
also screech loudly at night or in the day, if anything 
occurs to arouse their suspicion. 

Amongst noticeable hawks is a very common species of 
Milvus {M. migrans), a large dark-plumaged bird found 
everywhere on the Congo. Also remarkable is a small 
and pretty Asttcr (A, sphoemcrus ?), hardly bigger than the 
common kestrel, and a dove-coloured grey all over. 

Curiously enough, Helotarsus ecaudatus, the Bateleur 
eagle, is entirely absent from the Congo, although he is 
such a common bird in Angola. 

Machoerhamphus Anderssoni, that curious Ja^-eating 
fiawk Svst discovered in OvampoVand ^ud ^^t«twards (an 



NATURAL mSTOBT. 253 

allied species) in Malaysia, has been shot at Vivi on the 
Lower Congo, and a specimen may be seen in the Museum 
of the African International Association at Brussels. In 
spite of its curiously modified beak, wide gape, and other 
peculiarities, I think aU its affinities are with the accipi- 
trine group. We should certainly admire it for its 
original taste in food, and one would imagine that it liad 
few emulators in the chase, for bats do not seem to be a 
favourite article of diet. 

There are many plovers and rails found on the Congo, 
but, in common with most of the wading and water birds, 
they affect rather the broad stream and many islands of 
the Upper and Lower river than the straitened region of 
the cataracts. Of course the species of this great pluvia- 
line group are very numerous. Among them, however, 
deserve to be noticed certain birds which, from their great 
abundance and bold demeanour, are common features in 
the river foregrounds. Such are Pluvianus ^gyptius, a 
pretty little shore-frequenting bird, and the spur- winged 
plover, whom I have frequently mentioned as the " croco- 
dile's friend." A drawing of him appears at the close 
of this chapter, but I will also add a word or two of 
verbal description, so that all my readers who may come 
across him may recognise him and spare his life, for 
several reasons : firstly, because he is not at all good to 
eat ; secondly, because he is a bold, independent creature 
who always speaks or shrieks his mind ; and, thirdly, 
because he is exceedingly common, and it is very wicked 
to kill a bird unless it is good to eat or new to science. 
The spur-winged plover, LoHvanellus alhiceps, is about 
the size of an ordinary lapwing ; has long greenish legs 
with only three toes ; a pendant yellow lobe or wattle, 
one inch in length, on each side of the head; strong 
sharp spurs on the " shoulder '* or carpal joint of the 
wings, and is coloured as follows : a large white band 
runs along the top of the head, from which comes the 
sub-name albiceps; the face, throat, and tail coverts are 
dove-coloured, merging into fawn on the shoulder; the 
back and the secondaries are jet-black, arid ^\sfe V^^^^ 



254 A JOUBmY VP tee mVEB CONGO, 

and the pinions snowy-white. The beak is yellow with 
a black tip, and suggests an affinity to (Edicncmus, the 
" thick-kneed " plover. This latter genus is also another 
common pluvialine bird. Then there is Glareola cinerea 
and Nordmani, I found the young of G. cinerea once on 
a little bare piece of rock, only rising a foot above the 
water and not more than a few inches square ! I used to 
notice (it was near Msuata) as I crossed the river every day 
that a pair of these Glareolm were always perched on this 
little ledge of rock, and moved not, however near the canoe 
approached. One day, however, through careless steering, 
the canoe was driven right up against the rock by the 
current, and, in putting out my hand to break the shock 
of encounter, 1 put it on something soft and warm. 
Looking down, I saw two Uttle Glareoloe, about a week 
old, pressing themselves flat against the rock. They were 
covered with blackish down, and were quite invisible 
when crouched against dark surroundings. There was no 
sign of a nest, merely a shght concavity or "scoop'* in the 
morsel of rock, which could have retained the eggs. The 
parents all this time flew round me so close to my head 
that I made several ineffectual efforts to catch them with 
my hand. Taking pity on their distress, I left one httle 
one, and took the other home to examine. It was about 
the size of a day-old chicken, was covered with the afore- 
mentioned blackish down, and its legs were rather clumsy. 
The little bird generally rested on its tarsi, with the toes 
outspread like a squab-pigeon, but it could make an effort 
to balance itself on its *' feet " and shuffle along. It 
seemed quite unable to feed itself, though it took flies 
from the hand. As I felt the difficulty of rearing it, and 
having no spirit to preserve its little carcase for ultimate 
examination, I took it back the next morning to its rocky 
nursery, where it nestled down beside its little brother or 
sister with perfect equanimity, as if nothing particular 
had happened. I continued to take great interest in this 
quaint little family, isolated on a point of rock in mid- 
stream, and paid them several subsequent visits, placing 
an offering of raw meat (to attract the flies) from time to 



NATUBAL ElSTOUY. 256 

time in their home. My eventual departure from Msuata 
terminated this interesting aquaintance. There are no 
true bustards on the Congo, although certain species are 
found not far south in Angola ; there are, however, a few 
small otidine forms, one of which I noticed near Isangila, 
looking like a very tiny bustard, with some resemblance 
to a closely-allied family, the coursers. It is a most 
delicately-coloured little bird — cream, fawn, black, and 
white. I do not yet know its generic name ; but there is 
a specimen in the Museum of the African International 
Association at Brussels. 

Guinea-fowl are not common on the Congo. I have 
only met with them to any extent near Bolobo, where the 
species present was Numida cristata. Francolin may be 
shot from time to time, and make a most agreeable supple- 
ment to the traveller's frugal meal. 

Among the Pigeons {Treron), a common genus, repre- 
sented by T. calvaj a fruit pigeon, with green or greenish- 
grey body, and feet that are very nearly zygodactyle. A 
beautiful bird, found in the forests all along the Upper 
river, and in the neighbourhood of Stanley Pool, is the 
great blue iJantain-eater (Schizorhis gigantea), with a 
general plumage of verditer-blue, relieved by a yellow- 
green stomach, chestnut thighs, and a violet crest. This 
bird is difficult to shoot, as it is very shy and hides much 
among the thick foliage of the great trees ; but on one 
occasion I managed to bag him, and, after taking off his 
beautiful skin, we roasted him for dinner, and his flesh 
was moist, juicy and delicious. He feeds principally on 
wild figs and the scarlet dates of a species of Calamus 
palm. A young Belgian officer tried to keep one of these 
birds alive on bananas, but he refused to eat anything but 
the above-mentioned fruits, and, the supply of these being 
scanty, he sickened and died. This bird may be said to 
be the only one of his group that has the toes distinctly 
arranged three in front and one behind. All the other 
plantain-eaters and touracos are either distinctly zygodac- 
tyle, or else, as in Schizorhis concolor, the toes are what 
one might call " undecided." Colivs, as we all know^ caxL 



256 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVSR ComO. 

turn its toes any way ; but Colitis, according to the late 
Professor Garrod, ought to be separated entirely from the 
Musophagidcc, and to be placed in a group by itself ap- 
proaching the Cuckoos. Curiously enough, though there 
are several species of touracos (CorytJiaix) in Angola, that 
genus is unrepresented on the Congo, the only other 
member of the Musophagidcc group, besides the above- 
mentioned ScJiizorhis, being the beautiful violaceous plan- 
tain-eater (Musophaga violacea) which is occasionally met 
with on the Lower river, especially between \i\i and 
Isangila. Colies (Colms) are most abundant everywhere. 

On the islands of Stanley Pool, and indeed everywhere 
on the Upper Congo, the grey parrot is present — well, it 
is a moderate estimate to say — in thousands. The high 
trees are covered with them, and their red tails are always 
enlivening the foliage with bits of scarlet colour. It does 
not seem to be generally known that the grey parrot has 
a great variety of note in a wild state. Its whistling is 
most melodious, especially of an early morning, when the 
birds fly out from the forest for an airing. The little 
Poeocephahts parrot is common on the mainland round 
Stanley Pool, and seems a quarrelsome and noisy little 
bird. It is always quarrelling, more particularly with a 
species of roller {Eurystomits) that appears to invade its 
haunts and seek unnecessary disputes. The natives say 
this Eurystomiis attacks the nests of Posoccphahcs in the 
hollow cavities of the baobab-trees, and eats the callow- 
young. If so, this noisy little parrot may have some 
excuse for its screeching. The species of roller to which 
I refer is a bird with a large yellow hooked beak, some- 
what broad and flattened, and weak toes armed with 
powerful claws, with the hinder toe directed somewhat 
forward or " inward,*' so that the toes appear nearly all 
four in a row. Its colours are beautiful. The head, back, 
and mantle are rich chocolate-brown ; on the breast this 
changes to a lovely mauve, while the belly and outer 
tail-feathers are a pale sea-blue. The quills and central 
tail-feathers are ultramarine. I wounded one of these 
birds once, and kept it alive during over three months 



NATURAL EISTOn'^. 



257 



(having set its broken wing), and, although it never grew 
tame, it fed voraciously from the hand the moment it was 
caught. These i-ollers fly in small flocks, and are much 
given to mobbing falcona and scapulated crows. 

The scapulated crow, one of the commonest of African 
birds, almost, if not entirely disappears in the cataract 
region of the Congo, and only makes its reappearance at 
and beyond Stanley Pool. Is it because the bird really 
dislikes mountainous regions, or that in this poor country 
there is too little for it to eat ? But this last can hardly 
be the reason. It is a bird of most accommodating 
appetite, and would certainly find a means of living round 
the native villages, especially those near the banks of the 
river, where there is much fish refuse. On the Upper river 
be generally builds his nest in the Hyphcew palms, and 
often falls out witli a large kite who chooses the same tree 
for his eerie. 





SPUK-WINQKD PLOVER. 



258 A JOUBNEt tip THE RIVER CONGO. 



CHAPTER XV. 

NATURAL HISTORY — MAMMALS. 

MONKEVB — MaNDSILLS — TjIE GoKILLA — LeMURS — TUK LeOPARD 

The Lion — Tiger-Oats — HYiENAs — The Civkt Cat — The 
Genet Cat — Jackals — The Manatee — The Elephant — Size 
OF Tusks — The Hippopotamus — A Hogue Hippopotamus — The 
Rhinoceros — The Buffalo — Antelopes. 

It is strange that a region like the Lower Congo basin, so 
richly forested, should be so poor in monkeys. On the 
river Kwilu, a little to the north, and on the Quanza, to 
the south, the Simian are abundantly represented, and the 
surrounding conditions of nature are much the same. 
Nevertheless, just as with the snakes, you might journey 
up the Congo from the coast to Bolobo and not see a 
single monkey. The only times I ever came across them 
myself — that is to say, in a wild state — were in the 
uninhabited Inga country, between Vivi and Isangila, in 
which district I have frequently seen a large brown 
Oercojpithecus, whose species I could not determine, that 
makes a great unwieldy nest or platform of sticks on the 
higher branches of the trees, and sits on it, watching the 
passer-by. I have also been able to identify the existence 
of several well-known West African species by skins 
worn by the natives, or brought for sale. In this way I 
have ascertained the presence of the beautiful Diana 
monkey,* the Pluto,t the grivet,t the sooty mangabey,§ 
and the Colobus.\\ It is possible that all West African 

* Ceropithecus Diana, f C, Pluto, 

X C, griseo-virdis, § Cercocehusfuliginosus* 

\\ Colobus ATigoIeKxsis. 



NATOBAL SISTORT. 



259 



genera are represented on the Congo, but they certainly 
do not show themselves in any abundance. About the 
mouth of the Congo, in the marshy forest country, 
monkeys seem to be much more common than up the 
river, to judge by the numbers biought for sale by the 




natives. Here I have seen in captivity many mandrills 
{Fapio tnaimon) and drills (P. leucophwus). At the Dutch 
House in Banana there is, or was at the time of my visit, 
an admirable collection of West .African monkeys, in- 
cluding some very fine male and female mandrills. At 
Stanley Pool I have heard of baboons • being seen, and 
• Prubdbly Papio Spliiiix, 



260 A JOtlRNEY UP THE BTVEB CONGO. 

the natives of Ki-inpoko tell strange tales of large man- 
like apes in the interior. The gorilla and chimpanzee, 
which are entirely absent from the Lower Congo, probably 
approach the Upper river above the falls. Certainly 
some large anthropoid ape is known to the Ba-teke and 
Ba-yansi, for they recognised with loud cries an engraving 
of the gorilla, and said frequently that he was found on 
the north bank of the river. This has been repeatedly 
told me by natives of Bolobo (who in speaking of the 
anthropoid ape used the word "ngina'*), by chance 
visitors at Msuata, and also at Ki-mpoko and other places 
on Stanley Pool. The Baptist missionaries at Leopold- 
ville have also heard of the gorilla from their pupils, who 
pick out his picture at once in Wood's Natural History. 
I think, therefore, it is probable that the gorilla, chim- 
panzee, or both, or some kindred anthropoid ape, is found 
on the Upper Congo, and is possibly the same as the 
" soke " of the Lualaba. 

Periodicticvs potto and arctocelms are curious tailless 
lemuroids which are also found about the Lower Congo. 
The former is constantly brought for sale by the natives 
at Banana Point. Parenthetically I might remark that 
there is no better ground for a collector than this latter 
place. Possibly its vicinity is no better provided with 
wild creatures than many other parts of the Congo, but 
here the natives are accustomed to capture and bring for 
sale everything tliey can lay their hands on. 

The galago lemur is very common about Stanley Pool, 
and the natives make " karosses " out of many of its skins 
joined together, with a fringe of tails. These are very 
handsome, but the natives resist every temptatiion to sell 
them unfortunately, or they would be very beautiful and 
costly souvenirs to bring home. 

On the Congo the leopard is the best-known and most 
dreaded of the Felidcc. The natives often call him 
" great lord," and when a leopard is killed or caught in a 
trap, a day of public rejoicing is kept in the neighbouring 
villages, during which the slaves are absolved from all 
work. 



NATUBAL HISTORY. 261 

The lion, entirely absent from the coast region between 
the Congo and Sierra Leone, begins to be heard of at 
Stanley Pool; and farther into the interior there is no 
doubt that he exists. Some of the more influential chiefs 
here have lions' skins. Makoko, the chief of the Ba-teke, 
received De Brazza seated on one of these, which has now, 
with other insignia of royalty, passed to his successor. 
The natives describe his appearance and imitate his 
roaring so well that there is no doubt that they have 
come into contact with the king of beasts. I have seen 
several villages on the north or western bank of the Congo 
barricaded carefully against the probable attacks of lions, 
and every night the live-stock was regularly driven into 
this stockaded fortress. Further, the Zanzibaris aver that 
once when they went to buy fowls from a village nearly 
opposite the Kwa Eiver, called Ganchu, they crept into 
their canoes at night and preferred to sleep on the water, 
because the lion roared so loudly in their proximity. 

Two or three species of tiger-cats are common, and 
destroy much poultry. One appears to be Felis serval ; 
the others I have not had means of identifying. 

The hysena is often spoken of by the natives, and is, 
according to their account, the striped species. The 
civet-cat ( Viverra) is prized for its scent-bag, but does 
not seem to be very common. Genets are constantly 
met with, and make charming house-pets. Their kittens 
are the most amusing little creatures imaginable, and 
exhibit more playfulness when young than any animal I 
know. 

The only Canis apparently present on the Congo is 
C. lateralis, the side-striped jackal. The black-backed 
jackal may possibly also be found, but I have never seen 
any sign of it. Potamogale, the curious otter-like in- 
sectivore, possibly inhabits the Upper river, to judge by 
the skins brought down by the natives. I have also seen 
Chrysochlorus, the golden mole. 

The manatee (Manatus) never passes, as far as we yet 
know, the cataracts of the Congo, but confines itself to the 
Lower riv^r, A species of riyer do\^\mi,?iX!^^^^^^^^^'^ 



262 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONQO. 

the Amazon species, is occasionally found in the Lower 
Congo and about the estuary. I have seen a skull alleged 
to belong to it. 

The elephant is very abundant on the Upper Congo ; 
and every morning, as you ascend the river, traces of their 
last night's devastations may be seen, for they seem to 
have a tendency towards wanton destruction and waste, 
being like parrots and monkeys in only eating about a 
quarter of the food they procure, and scattering the rest 
right and left with wanton caprice. So, on the islands of 
the Upper river, where the graceful borassus palms grow 
in their thousands, each blue-green palm with its cluster 
of orange fruit, the elephant is to be constantly seen — 
sometimes in broad dayUght, but more often towards sun- 
set — breaking his way through the pillar-like clusters, 
destroying many a beautiful palm for the sake of those 
orange-coloured stony dates of which he is so strangely 
fond. You may also see them, as I have, in the short 
hour of tranquil twilight, walking out in Indian file from 
the sheltering forest into the shallow parts of the river, 
where they squirt streams of water over their dry heated 
skins. Ordinarily it is at nigh-time, and above all when 
there is a moon, that the elephants come down to drink 
and bathe. Moreover, they are much more commonly 
seen on the Congo during the dry season, as then the many 
little forest brooks are likely to be dried up, and the 
elephants are compelled to incur greater publicity in their 
bath by seeking the great Congo. Although the elephants 
are much more frequently met with above Stanley Pool, 
still in certain districts of the Lower river they are 
common, especially in the cataract region. In the country 
opposite Isangila elephants have often been shot by 
members of Mr. Stanley's expedition, and at the Livingstone 
mission station of Banza-Manteka, fifteen miles from the 
south bank of the Congo, elephants have at times trooped 
in long succession past the door of the mission-house, 
whilst the awe-struck missionaries shut themselves up 
securely within. 

The largest Tusk I have yet %ee\i on this river weighe4 



NATUBAL HISTORY. 263 

93 lb., and one from an elephant killed at the station of 
Msuata, by one of the Zanzibaris, weighed 79 lb. Of 
course I have heard of tusk» of immense and fabulous 
weight, 180 lb. and 192 lb. being modestly cited as 
examples of these prodigies; but I require to see them 
weighed before believing such statements. The largest 
tusk I have ever seen in "West Africa (at Old Calabar) 
weighed 140 lb., and looked a monster. Although the 
elephant is so abundant all along the Congo, from Stanley 
Pool towards the interior, yet the natives, as far as I have 
yet ascended the river, never dreamt of attacking him, but 
received all their ivory from the Bangala of the equator, 
who are also reported by the Ba-yansi to get theirs from a 
yet more distant tribe ; so that I should not be surprised 
to learn that the same central region that sends its ivory 
to the Congo also supplies the merchants of the Shari and 
the Nile. 

The hippopotamus, as will have been gathered from the 
many previous references to its abundance, is one of the 
commonest, or at least one of the most noticeable, of the 
Congo mammalia. During the day-time this gi^eat am- 
phibian prefers to frequent the large submerged sand- 
banks or " shallows " so common in the river. Here he 
generally stands upright, with his head and backbone 
rising above the water, and with many of his companions 
in a line. They yawn constantly, and the huge jaws are 
lifted in this action high above the water, displaying a 
pinky chasm of palate and throat. The grunting noise 
they make, and their great sighs of contentment as they 
relapse intx) the tepid water after a momentary inspection 
of the advancing canoe, may be heard for a long distance 
across the stream. Hippopotami are distinctly reddish in 
colour as seen in the water. They generally go in herds 
of nine and ten together, apparently consisting of one 
mature bull with four or five cows and their respective 
calves. The act of coition is said by the natives to take 
place invariably at night-time, as with pigs. Certainly 
the activity of the hippopotamus is very much greater 
after the sun has set, for it is then that ha V^^^^^ "^^^^ 



264 A JOURNEY UP THE BIVEB CONGO. 

water and goes to feed amid the gi'eat rank grass-fields, 
where he remains until after sunrise ; indeed, if you are 
smart, you may intercept him there, cut ofif his retreat, 
kill him easily, for he offers a huge mark, and then go 
tranquilly to your breakfast, having first spoilt his. As 
to shooting them from a canoe on the water, it is a 
question the utility of which it is difficult to decide. If 
you do not fire at Hippo, he may come and just wreck 
you in a spirit of pure play ; on the other hand, if you hit 
and do not kill outright, he will certainly make for you 
with a vengeance. Fortunately they do not swim verj' 
fast, and may easily be out-distanced by a skilfully- 
paddled canoe. The female hippopotamus is passionately 
attached to her young, and during the first few weeks of 
its life lives almost isolated from her fellows, generally on 
land ; I imagine that this is because the baby hippopotami 
at an early age might form an easy prey to the voraciono 
crocodiles. The males are much given to quarrelling even 
in the day-time, and, when fighting, utter strange boar- 
like squeals and grunts. It very often happens that an 
imfortunate bull, unable to obtain a mate, turns rogue, 
and lives a solitary life, seeking to wreak his spite on 
whatever may come in his way. There was one such 
beast that haunted the neighbourhood of Msuata. This 
malicious creature was the terror of the natives in the 
adjoining villages, for he would lie in wait, amid the 
rushes, for the canoes returning home with the fishermen 
at dusk, and then swim out silently under water and 
wreck them. When I was staying here we sent a canoe 
with letters to Stanley, who was farther down the river. 
The canoe started at early dawn, was wrecked close to the 
station by the demon hippopotamus, and one of its occu- 
pants was carried off* by a crocodile. On the whole, the 
hippopotamus may be called the most dangerous animal 
to man on the river Congo. 

The rhinoceros is nowhere heard of in this district, nor 

is he, properly speaking, found in West Africa at all, 

merely penetrating into Southern Angola from the Zambezi 

and^ Sou th African regions. TVie xed^-^^y ^t-^Kog (Sus porcus) 



NATUBAL EI8T0BY. 265 

is common, and its flesh is greatly appreciated by the 
natives. 

I have seen a skin of HyoTOoschus, so apparently its 
range extends to the Congo. 

There is only one bufifalo on this river, the red species. 
Bos h'ochyceros. He his much inferior in size to his larger 
relatives, the buffaloes of Central and Southern Africa, but 
he seems ordinarily quite as fierce, although at times he 
shows an opportune mildness of demeanour, as may be 
judged from the following incident which happened to 
Mr. Stanley when travelling between Vivi and Isangila. 
He was at the head of his caravan, and had been ascending 
a nearly precipitous hill under a hot sun. When he 
arrived at the top, panting and ready to throw himself 
down on the grass with fatigue and exhaustion, he suddenly 
found himself face to face with a red buffalo, who was 
staring at him in much astonishment. The bufifalo 
lowered his head, and Mr. Stanley fired ; but although he 
was within a couple of yards of his mark, he was so 
agitated that he missed. The bufifalo, however, merely 
turned round, and trotted oflf quietly. As the road in this 
country is continually taking you up and down abrupt 
hills, I always used to dread lest, on arriving at the top 
of some elevation, utterly sick and faint with want of 
breath, I might find myself in a like predicament, and the 
bufifalo less considerate. 

The Congo is very poor in antelopes, as compared with 
the less forested regions north and south. There are no 
true gazelles ; Cervieapra and Nanotragits are found, and 
frequently go under that name. There are several species 
of Cephalophi, and the large C. sylvicultrix is occasionally 
seen on the Lower river. Cobus antelopes are fairly 
common everywhere, especially on the borders of streams. 
I give the head of one here, that I do not identify as yet 
with any of the numerous species of this large genus. 
The hoofs of this Cobits do not offer any great peculiarities, 
except that they are perhaps somewhat long and wide 
apart. There is a Tragdaphus found on the Con^^ 
T. gratus apparently, which has kooi^ Tia^A^j ^\3w\s^r)^^'^^». 



266 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVEB CONQO. 

length and very pointed. This creature, whicli is a dark, 
dun-colour in the male, with wliite spots and stripes, 
inhabits the marshes and small streams, being much more 
at home in the water than on land. The horns are much 
used by the natives as trumpets (see illustration, p. 296), 
Other members of the Tra/jelaphidce are the Kudus, 




A COBUB ANTELOPE. 

which I have seen near Vivi, the harnessed antelope, 
conunon everywhere, and probably also the derbian, or 
striped eland. 

A porcupine is found all along the Congo, and its quills 
are used for many purposes by the natives. The Ba-yansi 
call it " nkdk6," or " thunder," from the noise it makes 
fattling its qnills in anget. A. \w%& Hident, AuJacodus, is 



NATURAL HISTORY. 267 

occasionally captured and eaten by the natives. Small 

side-striped squirrels abound in the woods, and an infini- 
tude of murine species are met with, one of them a small 
black rat infesting the native villages. 

The curious Edentate, Manis is also one of the Congo 
mammalia, though very rare and shy. 



268 A JOUBNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 

The Dwarf Race — The Upper Congo Kaces — The Ashirongo — 
The Bakongo — Conduct and Morality — Phallic Worship — 
The Nkimba — The Sacred Language — Art of Medicine — 
Domestic Life — Hairiness of African Races — ^Early Man 
— Clothing — Cicatrization — Hairdrebsing — Features — 
Char ACTRR — Ceremonies — Education — Marriage — ^Burial — 
Food — Domestic Animals — Crops — ^Houses — ^Musical Instru- 
ments — Population. 

The races of man that inhabit the basin of the Congo 
throughout its entire course— certainly in all that part of 
it that I have visited— belong almost exclusively to that 
great Bantu family which, when seen in its purest 
exemplars, the Ova-herero and Ova-mpo of the South- 
west, the tribes of the Zambezi, the people of the great 
lakes of Tanganyika and Nyasa, and the western shores 
of Victoria Nyanza, and finally of the Upper Congo, is so 
distinct physically and linguistically from the divers 
negro, negroid, and Hamitic populations to the north of 
it, and from the Hottentot-Bushman group to the south. 
I have just written that the inhabitants of the Congo 
basin belong " almost " exclusively to this great homo- 
geneous Bantu family. The qualifying *^ almost " is 
introduced for two reasons. Firstly, because we kn'ow 
that about the Upper Congo and Lualaba there are 
certain dwarf races, encountered both by Stanley, Wiss- 
mann, and many other travellers ; and besides this I have 
certainly seen myself two specimens of a dwarf type 
living SL3 slaves among t\ie Ba-^o^.im, ^ud <iiffering wholly 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 




270 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

from their masters in physical appearance. Still it is not 
quite certain that these dwarfs may not turn out to be a 
greatly degraded Bantu tribe. Language is of course by 
no means a true guide, as it may often be imposed upon 
a conquered or inferior race by stronger immigrants. 
Still it is curious that the only recorded words spoken by 
a specimen of the Wa-twa, the dwarf race on the Upper 
Congo that Stanley encountered,* should be pure Bantu 
in character. He is reported by the great traveller to 
have said, " Mabi ! mabi ! " for " bad," " ki-rembo-rembo " 
for »' lightning," and " Firi Niambi " for " God." Now 
" mabi " — meaning bad, poisonous, wicked — is used right 
down the Congo as far as Stanley Pool. It is pure 
Ki-teke, for example, and is one of the commonest words 
employed. " Ki-rembo-rembo " seems to resemble certain 
Central African terms for *' finger,"! and by ** Ki-rembo- 
rembo, firi Niambi," the dwarf probably meant "the 
finger of God," for in using " Niambi " to express " God," 
he simply employed the same word as the " Nyambi," 
" Njambi," " Ndyambi," "' Ndambi," '* Nzambi," of Angola, 
the Western Congo, and the Gaboon.J The dwarf-tribes 
are reported as being, in the interior, very hairy. Now 
hairiness is a feature strangely absent from the Bushmen 
and Hottentots of the South, with whom it has been 
imagined that these dwarf races might have some distant 
relationships ; and, on the contrary, the Bantu tribes of 
the Congo' are very hairy naturally, although most of 
them seem smooth-skinned, owing to artificial depilation. 
However, there is no doubt these dwarf races sufficiently 
differ from their neighbours to justify the qualification 1 
have introduced into my assertion ; and, besides this first 
reason, there is another, in that the Congo tribes, nearing 
the coast, begin to lose their distinctive Bantu character, 
either through the degradation the coast climate seems to 

* Sec Stanley's * Dark Continent,' vol. ii. pp. 172-3. 
t LemhOy mu-Uemo, remo^ in divers Congo tongues. 
t Since this was written Mr. Stanley has supplied us with some 
vocvibijJaries of the dwarf-tribes in the Aruwimi forests (vide "Darkest 
Africa "); these are all Bantu in l\ie\i ^^tkiUoa. 



THE PEOPLE OF TBE CONGO. 271 

entail, or because on their migration westward from the 
north-east Bantu focus, they originally met and mixed 
with, in the low-lying coast-lands, an earlier negro 
population. This latter supposition sometimes strikes me 
as being the true one, for the reason that, in such a 
littoral tribe as the Kabinda or Loango people there are 
distinctly two types of Eace. One — the Bantu — a fine, 
tall, upright man, with delicately small hands and well- 
shaped feet, a fine face, high, thin nose, beard, moustache, 
and a plentiful crop of hair; the other an ill-shaped, 
loosely-made figure, with splay feet, high calves, a 
retreating chin, blubber lips, no hair about the face, and 
the wool on his head close and crisply curled. The 
farther you go into the interior, the finer the type becomes. 
Such men as the Bayansi of Bolobo are perfect Greek 
statues in the development and poise of their forms, and 
two points about them contrast very favourably with 
most of the coast races, namely, their lighter colour — 
generally a warm chocolate — and their freedom from that 
offensive smell which is supposed, wrongly, to characterise 
most Africans. Many other details show the com- 
paratively high status of the Upper Congo races: their 
small hands and feet, their well-shaped legs with full 
calves, and their abundant heads of liair. 

The principal tribes to be encountered in ascending the 
Congo to the equator are, commencing at the mouth, the 
Ka-kongo (Kabindas and others), Ashi-rongo, Ba-kongo, 
Ba-sundi, Ba-bwende, Wa-buno, Ba-teke, Wa-buma, Ba- 
nunu, and Ba-yansL* Of these the Kabindas or Ka-kongo 
people have been already touched on ; and T might 
mention further that they are the Krumen of the south, 
hiring themselves out in all directions as servants, sailors, 
labourers, and affecting more particularly the Portuguese 
colonies, which they overrun as far as Mossaraedes, in- 
variably returning home after a time to spend their 

* The tribe which I always knew under the name of " Ba-yansi " is 
probably more correctly called " Ba-bangi." Dr. Sims, of the CJongo 
h\ee State, has published most interesting Ki-bangi, or Ki-yansi, and 
Ki-tekc vcicabular'es.-^H. H. J. 



270 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

from their masters in physical appearance. Still it is not 
quite certain that these dwarfs may not turn out to be a 
greatly degraded Bantu tribe. Language is of course by 
no means a true guide, as it may often be imposed upon 
a conquered or inferior race by stronger immigrants. 
Still it is curious that the only recorded words spoken by 
a specimen of the Wa-twa, the dwarf race on the Upper 
Congo that Stanley encountered,* should be pure Bantu 
in character. He is reported by the great traveller to 
have said, " Mabi ! mabi ! " for " bad," " ki-rembo-rembo " 
for *' lightning," and " Firi Niambi " for " God." Now 
"mabi" — meaning bad, poisonous, wicked — is used right 
down the Congo as far as Stanley Pool. It is pure 
Ki-teke, for example, and is one of the commonest words 
employed. " Ki-rembo-rembo " seems to resemble certain 
Central African terms for *' linger," t nnd by "Ki-renibo- 
rembo, firi Niambi," the dwarf probably meant "the 
finger of God," for in using " Niambi " to express " God," 
he simply employed the same word as the "Nyambi," 
" Njambi," " Ndyambi," '• Ndambi," " Nzambi," of Angola, 
the Western Congo, and the Gaboon.^ The dwarf-tribes 
are reported as being, in the interior, very hairy. Now 
hairiness is a feature strangely absent from the Bushmen 
and Hottentots of the South, with whom it has been 
imagined that these dwarf races might have some distant 
relationships ; and, on the contrary, the Bantu tribes of 
the Congo' are very hairy naturally, although most of 
them seem smooth-skinned, owing to artificial depilation. 
However, there is no doubt these dwarf races sufficiently 
differ from their neighbours to justify the qualification I 
have introduced into my assertion ; and, besides this first 
reason, there is another, in that the Congo tribes, nearing 
the coast, begin to lose their distinctive Bantu character, 
either through the degradation the coast climate seems to 

* Sec Stanley's * Dark Continent,' vol. ii. pp. 172-3. 
t Lembo, mu-liemo, remo, in divers Congo tongues, 
j Since this was written Mr. Stanley has supplied us with some 
vocabularies of the dwarf-tribes in the Aruwimi forests (vide "Darkest 
A/h'ca "); these are all Bantu in l\ie\i ^^SamU^fe. 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 271 

entail, or because on their migration westward from the 
north-east Bantu focus, they originally met and mixed 
with, in the low-lying coast-lands, an earlier negro 
population. This latter supposition sometimes strikes me 
as being the true one, for the reason that, in such a 
littoral tribe as the Kabinda or Loango people there are 
distinctly two types of Eace. One — the Bantu — a fine, 
tall, upright man, with delicately small hands and well- 
shaped feet, a fine face, high, thin nose, beard, moustache, 
and a plentiful crop of hair; the other an ill-shaped, 
loosely-made figure, with splay feet, high calves, a 
retreating chin, blubber lips, no hair about the face, and 
the wool on his head close and crisply curled. The 
farther you go into the interior, the finer the type becomes. 
Such men as the Bayansi of Bolobo are perfect Greek 
statues in the development and poise of their forms, and 
two points about them contrast very favourably with 
most of the coast races, namely, their lighter colour — 
generally a warm chocolate — and their freedom from that 
offensive smell which is supposed, wrongly, to characterise 
most Africans. Many other details show the com- 
paratively high status of the Upper Congo races: their 
small hands and feet, their well-shaped legs with full 
calves, and their abundant heads of hair. 

The principal tribes to be encountered in ascending the 
Congo to the equator are, commencing at the mouth, the 
Ka-kongo (Kabindas and others), Ashi-rongo, Ba-kongo, 
Ba-sundi, Ba-bwende, Wa-buno, Ba-teke, Wa-buma, Ba- 
nunu, and Ba-yansL* Of these the Kabindas or Ka-kongo 
people have been already touched on ; and T might 
mention further that they are the Krumen of the south, 
hiring themselves out in all directions as servants, sailors, 
labourers, and affecting more particularly the Portuguese 
colonies, which they overrun as far as Mossaraedes, in- 
variably returning home after a time to spend their 

* The tribe which I always knew under the name of " Ba-yansi " is 
probably more correctly called " Ba-bangi." Dr. Si hip, of the Congo 
i^Vee State, has published most interesting Ki-bangi, or Ki-yansi, and 
Ki-tekc Vdcabulares.-^H. H. J. 



272 A JOURNEY UP TEE RIVER CONGO, 

earnings. The Kabindas in their dealings with' the 
Portuguese much resemble the relations between the 
Krumeu of the Liberian coast and the English. Both 
races are largely influenced by their intercourse with the 
white people, and though in neither case has there been 
any conquest or previous occupation of territory, yet, on 
the one hand, every Kabinda knows more or less Portu- 
guese, and few — I might say no — Krumen of the coast 
are ignorant of English. I think the recent attempt of 
the Portuguese to establish themselves on the Ka-kongo 
coast, whatever may be the view taken by the great 
powers, will meet with the approval of the natives, who 
have so long served under their new masters abroad that 
they will take kindly to their dominion at liome. 

On the southern bank of the Lower river, opposite the 
Kabinda people, the little-known country of Sonyo or 
Songo is inhabited by the Au-shi-rongo, as the Portu- 
guese call them, a degraded branch of the great Ba- 
kongo race which stretches in reality, though it undergoes 
some variations, from Kabinda to Kinrembo on the coast, 
and from Stanley Pool to Banana along the river. The 
Ba-kongo group is split up into several separate tribes, all 
of which, however, speak more or less the same tongue, 
which is sometimes called Fiote (meaning " the common 
people"), and more correctly Ki-shi-kongo. Amongst 
the Ba-kongo peoples, or inhabitants of the river along 
its lower course from Stanley Pool to the sea, there are 
the Ba-shi-kongo already mentioned, who probably re- 
present the van of the Bantu invasion in this direction, 
mixed with an antecedent negro population; then the 
Ba-kongo proper, who have their centres about Sao 
Salvador and Palabala, the Basundi, the Ba-bwende, 
and the Wa-buno. In the names of all these tribes but 
one, it is curious to notice that the old plural prefix, 
" Ba," is retained, whereas in the spoken tongue it has 
degenerated to " Wa" and even "A." The only excep- 
tion is in the case of the Wa-buno, who are probably a 
later subdivision from the main stock. The Ba-kongo 
proper were once tlie lulmg xaci^ over all this district, 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 273 

and founded the great Congo empire^ which waa discovered 
by the Portuguese at the height of its prosperity, when 
its ruler's sway extended far beyond the bounds of the 
Congo districts. Now a small amount of territory between 
Sao Salvador and the river is all that remains of a once 
powerful kingdom. The King of Congo still reigns at 
Sao Salvador, and though he is not precisely a Christian, 
he vacillates between the teachings of the Baptist mis- 
sionaries at his court, and the dogmas of the Church of 
Eome, who has once more tried to resume her bygone 
sway over the Congo peoples. The Ba-kongo tongue, or 
more properly the Ki-shi-kongo, is spoken in greatest 
purity at Sao Salvador, and also about Palabala, and the 
southern bank of the river opposite Vivi. It is one of 
the most beautiful and flexible of the Bantu languages, 
having all the softness of Italian, the precision of French, 
and the flexibility of English, three qualifications, by-the- 
bye, well represented in the Portuguese, a language which 
is for some reason much more easily acquired by African 
races than any other European tongue. Portuguese has 
considerably influenced the vocabulary of Kongo, as 
might be imagined from the four centuries of intercourse 
between the two peoples. All things of new and exotic 
origin are expressed by slightly altered Portuguese words, 
such as meza for " table " (Port., meza), di-lalanza for 
"orange" (Port., laranja), sdbola for '-onion" (Port., 
cebola), and so on. This Portuguese intermixture is 
much greater at Sao Salvador and ou the coast, and 
diminislies in proportion as we advance into the interior ; 
still some Lusitanian words have strayed far into the 
continent from the western coast, and, like the four old 
muskets that Stanley met with in Eubunga, have taken 
centuries to enter the vocabularies of tribes to whom 
Portugal is utterly unknown. Thus, beyond Bolobo,. the 
pine-apple, a Portuguese introduction from Brazil, is 
called hi-nasi or bi-nanasi, a corruption of the Portugo- 
Brazilian name, " ananas." On the coast the pine-apple 
has been established a sufficient time for it to have 
changed and varied its name, but among the B^r^^\i^\5fta 



274 A JOUBNEY UP THE BIVER CONGO. 

old term has slowly journeyed onward with the extension 
of the plant. 

The Ba-kongo of Palabala are a finer race than the de- 
graded negroid A-slii-kongo or A-so-rongo of. the coast. Fet 
they do not display an entirely Bantu type, such as one SQes 
in the Ba-yansi of the Upper river. Their skiri, however, 
is not the dead coal-black of the coast tribes, but is often 
a warm chocolate or ruddy brown. . They do not practise 
much personal adornment, either by cicatrization, taitooing 
or painting the skin with divers pigments. They axe 
naturally a hairy race, especially about the face — some of 
the chiefs wearing copious beards, whiskers and moustache 
— but on the body the pile is plucked out from the age 
of puberty, otherwise their bodies would be partially 
covered with short curly hair. The two front incisor 
teeth in the upper jaw are occasionally chipped, but this 
is not a regular custom, as it is farther up the river. 
Also among the Ba-bwende of Manyanga and the sur- 
rounding district large nose-rings are passed through the 
septum of the nose, and earrings are frequently worn. 
Circumcision is everywhere practised on the males, and 
will be treated of in its place as a semi-religious rite. 

In character the Ba-kongo are indolent, fickle, and 
sensual. They dislike bloodshed as a general rule, and, 
save for certain superstitious customs, are rarely cruel, 
showing kindness and gentleness to animals. When 
their passions are excited, however, by fear of witchcraft 
or a wish to revenge grave injuries, they can become very 
demons of fanatical rage ; and the people, that in their 
calmer moments will shudder at an. abrasion of the skin 
in a friend or neighbour, will, when he is convicted of 
sorcery, leap and shout with frenzied joy around his fiery 
stake while he frizzles alive. Witch or wizard-burning 
(as a rule there are more witches killed) is very common 
among the debased tribes of the coast, and the poison- 
ordeal, already mentioned in Chapter III., prevails largely 
over the Lower Congo lands. In fact, in many a Ba-konga 
village, life must be rendered miserable by the constant 
accusations of sorcery. At Palabala, for instance, tox 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 275 

every one — child, woman, or man — who dies, somebody- 
is suspected of having caused the death by supernatural 
means, and the horrid old nganga or "medicine man," 
who holds the inquest over the corpse, is called upon to 
detect the guilty person, and generally fixes upon those 
possessed of worldly goods, in order that they may buy 
him off from his fell accusation. Should the accused 
however, either through poverty or the force of public 
opinion, be unable to evade the charge, he or she is 
compelled to take the casca* the infusion of a poisonous 
bark ; and according as the potion is regulated in strength 
by the nganga, so the suspected tamperer with witchcraft 
either vomits up the poison and recovers, dies at once 
from its effects, or retains it on the stomach and does 
not die, in which latter case the natives have rare sport in 
hacking the ill-doer to pieces with their blunt knives, or 
in " cooking " their victim over a slow fire. And yet 
when the fears and passions of these people are not roused 
they are gentle and effeminate, with many expressive 
words with which to caress and sympathise. 

I have said just now that they are immoral — or, at 
least sensual — but this is hardly to be taken in the same 
sense as the word is applied to vicious European com- 
munities. Their immorality rather arises from excess of 
uxoriousness than from a love of vice. 

Adultery is not uncommon, and its penalties vary from 
capital punishment to a trifling fine, according to the 
station of the offender or the district he lives in. The 
women have little regard for their own virtue, either 
before or after marriage, and but for the jealousy of the 
men there would be promiscuous intercourse between 
the sexes. Among the Ba-kongo women it is thought 
something honourable and praiseworthy, to merit the 
position of a white man's mistress, and a woman thus 
distinguished from her sisters is regarded with respect 
and consideration by her fellow countrymen. Moreover, 
though the men evince some marital jealousy amongst 

♦ The " Muavi " of East Central M\vt^ 



276 A JOUIiNEY UP THE SIVEE CONGO, 

themselves, they are far from displaying anything but 
satisfaction when a European is induced, to accept the 
loan of a wife, either as an act of hospitality or in con- 
sideration of some small payment. Unmarried girls they 
are more chary of offering, as their value in the market is 
greater ; but it may be truly said that among these people 
womanly chastity is unknown, and a woman's honour is 
measured by the price she costs. 

On the Lower Congo as far as Stanley Pool, over a 
region extending slightly beyond the domain of the 
Ba-kongo proper, phallic worship in various forms prevails. 
It is not associated with any rites that might be called 
particularly obscene; and on the coast, where manners 
and morals are particularly corrupt, the phallus cult is no 
longer met with. In the forests between Manyanga and 
Stanley Pool it is not rare to come upon a little rustic 
temple, made of palm-fronds and poles, within which 
male and female figures, nearly Or quite life-size, may be 
seen with disproportionate geliital organs, the figures 
being intended to represent the male and female principle. 
Around these carved and painted statues, as described in 
Chapter VI., are many offerings of plates, knives, and 
cloth, and frequently also the phallic symbol may be seen 
dangling from the rafters. There is not the slightest 
suspicion of obscenity in all this, and any one qualifying 
this worship of the Generative power as obscene does so 
hastily and ignorantly. It is a solemn mystery to the 
Congo native, a force but dimly understood ; and, like all 
mysterious natural manifestations — like the great rushing 
river that upsets his fishing canoes and has the power 
to drown him — like the blazing lightning, the roaring 
thunder and the shrieking wind, it is a power that must 
be propitiated and persuaded to his good. 

Connected, no doubt, with this phallic worship are the 
Nkimba ceremonies which are met with on the Lower 
Congo between Isangila and the coast, and which in 
varying forms may be traced among the "manhood- 
iflitiation " rites found among most Bantu peoples. 
The Nkimba are in a\l p^oWbility males undergoing 



TBE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 



277 



circumcision and an initiation into the rites of marriage, 
and this secret oonfrateniity is generally composed of 
youths of varying ages, between twelve and fifteen years. 
Occasionally older men may be seen amongst them, who 
for some reason have possibly evaded the initiation at an 
earlier age. These ceremonies last for two native years 
(twelve months), and there are three or more stages of 
initiation, said to be marked 
by changes in their grass 
coveringa. They chalk them- 
selves all over a ghastly 
white with some ai^llaceous 
earth, and do not wash once 
during their six months' 
probation, though they often 
renew the white colouring. 
During the whole period of 
their initiation they live like 
the lilies of the field, being 
sustained at the common 
expense of the village or 
community. The Nkimba in 
a great measure live separ- 
ately from their fellow towns- 
people, and seem to avoid 
coming into contact, above 
all, with the females and 
children of the community, 
whose presence, from the fact 
of their being without the 
arcana of sacred mystery, is 
considered undesirable and contaminating. Consequently, 
when the Nkimba are on the road they announce their 
presence by a sort of dnmiming noise like " dur-r-r I " and 
then all strangers — all who are not members of their 
freemasonry — are obliged to clear out of the road. Should 
they decline to do so they are set upon by the Nkimba, 
and soundly beaten with the wands these uftW 'i^«*i3<!^'*^ 
cany. Ugly creatures indeed they ax's, woi. "Oawj -^to^aaiX. 




278 A JOUnNEY VP THE RIVEtt COifGO. 

the constantly-recurring question — "Why does man so 
often make his religious ceremonies frightful ? " In 
addition to the white chalky covering or paste which 
covers the naturally sooty skins of the Nkimba novitiates, 
they also decorate their heads, whenever they can afford 
it, with a curious wicker crown or cage, to which little 
gaudy strips of scarlet cloth or the feathers of bright- 
coloured birds are affixed. Then round their waists is a 
wide wooden hoop or girdle, often quaintly decorated with 
incised patterns, and from this depends a long and dense 
skirt of dried grass reaching nearly to the ankles, and 
being often extended from the body by means of an inner 
framework like a crinoline. Sometimes there are also 
tufts and sheaves of grass hanging from the shoulders or 
the neck, but this addition, I believe, marks the attain- 
ment of an advanced grade in initiation. 

A curious part of these semi-religious rites is the 
acquiring of a sacred mysterious language, which is 
taught by the nganga, who presides over these ceremonies, 
to the disciples who are being circumcised and gathered 
into the confraternity. This language is never taught to 
females, and as yet no European has been able to examine 
its nature. I have heard men discoursing in it, as they 
do freely, and there were most of the Bantu prefixes and 
concords recognisable in their speech, though the actual 
words were unfamiliar. It might possibly be some older 
and more archaic form of Bantu language conserved for 
religious purposes — like the Sanskrit, the old Sclavonic, 
and the Latin — or it may be nothing more than an 
arbitrary transmogrification of words such as is found in 
the Mpongwe,* or in such artificial dialects as the 
Ki-nyume of Zanzibar.f 

* " Among the elders of the tribe there is a form of speech called 
the *Ewiria, or Dark Sayings,' which cannot be understood by the 
iminitiated, although the council may be held in open assembly. It is 
formed by changing words in an arbitrary manner, and to no one is the 
secret conQded who has not reached twenty-five years, and then under 
an oath of secrecy." — Vide Gust's * Modern Languages of Africa,' 
p, 419, vol ii. 
t Vide Steere's * Handbook to lYie KvB^waXjailAXi^g^ 



^SE PHOPLS OP THE CONGO. ' 279 

A Nkimba before initiation is called " Mungwala," and 
afterwards " Tungwa." I cannot guess at the etymology 
of these terms in any way, unless a suggestion of a far-oflf 
relationship with "Longwa" — to be taught, to learn — be 
of any use. 

These Nkimba are not met with among the Congo 
tribes farther inland than Isangila. Between the latter 
places and Manyanga there are many eunuchs in the 
large villages, who seemed to be attached to a vague 
phallic worship, with which is intricately connected a 
reverence for the moon. When the new moon appears, 
dances are performed by the eunuchs, who sacrifice a 
white fowl, which must always be a male — in its honour. 
The bird is thrown up into the air and torn to pieces as it 
falls to earth. I was told that in former days a human 
victim was offered up on these occasions, but that in later 
times a white fowl had been substituted. 

Naturally, with an imaginative people that refers the 
explanation of all physical problems to the action of 
anthropomorphic spirits, diseases are supposed to be due 
to the malice of demons, who are represented materially, 
as the embodification of the malady they incite. There 
is a small-pox bogey, a fever-spirit, and in certain temples 
about Manyanga you may come across a loathsome 
representation of the foul demon who is supposed to have 
inflicted syphilis on the unhappy natives, who bring 
offerings to his shrine with a view of appeasing his cruel 
ravages. 

Little or no notion of the healing art is present; 
medicines are represented by vague potions and powders, 
delivered without any reference to their antiseptic qualities, 
but merely in regard to their hidden potentialities of 
magic. The patient undergoes such heroic treatment at 
times that he may be cured on the principle that one ill 
drives out another. His friends also, by offering at the 
shrine, by the intercession of the nganga, by loud wailing 
supplications, seek to appease the disease demon's malice ; 
while on the other hand, with the instinctive feeling that 
it is "somebody's" fault and t\ia\. "^oxckfe ^wai*' <2»\ss|^\f^ 



280 A JOtiMEY UP THE RIVER COtfGO. 

be punished, they seek to find out who has, by foul 
witchcraft, egged the evil spirit on to this untoward 
manifestation of his power. The nganga is of course 
foremost in this research, and the culprit he fixes on is 
either mulcted of a heavy fine or, in serious cases, where 
the accused is poor, is compelled to pass through the 
"poison*' ordeal with varying result. These Ba-kongo 
people do not seem to suffer from disease to a greater 
degree than most uncivilized races. Nature is still 
allowed to exercise a happy selection in the survival of 
the fittest, and if a child is weakly no efforts are made to 
save its life. The result is that the physically strong are 
in the majority, while, en revanche^ the most cunning 
secure the greatest number of wives and leave the largest 
i'arailies. 

The nganga of every community is generally a mean- 
looking, perhaps puny man, but a glance at his sharp eye 
will show you that he excels his more brawny neighbours 
in mental capacity; ergo, the "medicine-man" of the 
village has a large harem, and leaves many descendants. 

The daily life of these people must be marked by 
terrible uniformity. They keep no calendar, and their 
vague traditions are perpetuated by word of mouth. It is 
almost like the life of the forest ; great calamities, sudden 
shocks are soon hidden and forgotten, and profound 
emotions exist not, while fleeing troubles and joys leave 
little impression on the vacuous mind, which lives and 
thinks and acts but for the hour. 

Before the dawn they begin to grumblingly awake from 
their sleep, and stir the deadened ashes of the fire into a 
warming glow. Then they sit on their haunches, with 
their hands crossed over their shoulders for the sake of 
warmth, the early morning being the coolest time in 
Africa ; and, whilst the men yawn and rub their eyes at 
the growing light, the women smack their babies, scold 
their bigger children, and open their minds on many dis- 
agreeable subjects to their lords and masters. Sunrise, 
that eternal resurrection that gladdens the most brutish 
sonl in Nature, puts «.ii end to \Jafe^^ ^^oNiah colloquies. 



S!S^ PMOPLH of ^HE CONGO. 281 

The women issue from the huts with morning greetings to 
their neighbours, and set about their household duties, 
while the men polish their weapons and implements of the 
chase, and set out to visit their bird-snares and fish-traps ; 
or they pack their goods for a neighbouring market, and 
trudge out to their destination ere the sun shall have risen 
high. 

When they have their regular meals it is hard to say. 
The children always seem to be gnawing something, and 
the women are constantly preparing food. I fancy the 
adults mostly feed at about an hour after sunrise, and just 
take snacks during the day, perhaps finishing up with 
another meal at night. 

After the morning repast the women go out to cultivate 
the fields or turn their hands to some industrial employ- 
ment, such as weaving, making pottery, or constructing 
coops for their hens and chickens. At noon-time all rest 
in the shade of their verandahs and indulge in tobacco- 
smoking, or pass the sultry hours in hair-dressing, personal 
decoration and friendly gossip. As the sun declines some 
form of active work is resumed, and after sunset, when 
the men have returned to the village, dancing and drinking 
of palm-wine begin, and are kept up, failing other amuse- 
ment — such as burning a person suspected of scorcery — 
until a late hour of the night, when all retire, with con- 
siderable hilarity and loud talking, to the slumber from 
which they will wake up very cross the next morning. 

I liave given a brief description of the tribes inhabiting 
the Lower Congo from Stanley Pool to the coast. At 
Stanley Pool however, just as one meets with new forms 
of butterflies, birds, and plants, so there is a decided 
change in the type of man .and in the language he 
speaks. 

On the northern bank of the river the Ba-teke extend 
their range beyond the Pool westwards, to the Jue river, 
and perhaps even farther into the confines of the Ba- 
bwende, a tribe speaking a dialect of the Kongo language 
of the Lower river; but on the south bank of the river 
the Ba-teke colonies do ]iot coniiiieviQfe xjcaXS^ n^^ ^2csi\^i^ "^ 



282 



A JOOSNSr UP TEE SIVEB GOSQO. 



the diattict of Ki-ntamo, on the western shores of Stanley 
Pool. 

The Ba-teke, Wa-buma, and Ba-yansi, all tribes of the 
Upper river ,• though they differ each from the other in 
certain characteristics, and markedly in tongue, yet offer 
so many mutual points of resemblance and of dissimilarity 
to the ;^kongo people below Stanley Pool that they may 
well be described together in their general features and 
separated in this description from the races of the Lower 
river. 

These upper Congo people betray little or no inter- 




mixture of " negro " blood. They are pure " Bantu," and 
consequently greatly resemble other unmixed races of the 
same stock, such as tlie Ova-mbo, the Ba-lunda, and the 
people of Tanganyika and N^yaaa. They differ from the 
more negroid Ba-kougo in having skins of a chocolate 
brown, and, above all, in their abundant growth of hair. 
The beard, whiskers, and moustache are always present, 
but are generally, in common with the hair of the eye- 
brows and the eyelashes, plucked out, from a prejudice 



• By Upper and Lowtr rivnt I always e 
below atanlef Fool. 



1 the Coi^o above uid 



THE PEOPLE OF TEE CONOO. 283 

against cultivating hair anywhere but on the top of the 
head. Only in chiefs, as a rule, is the beard allowed to 
grow, and that only partially. So also on the body, the 
pile, which would naturally be abundant, and in parts 
even thick, is remorselessly pulled out by the roots, these 
people assiduously cultivating that nakedness of skin to 
which mankind has ever been so partial. 

As a fact, most African races are disposed to be hairy, 
especially on their bodies,* but in so many tribes does the 
practice exist of rigorously pulling out every hair that 
makes its appearance, that one conceives the idea that 
Africans are devoid of hair on their bodies. The only 
races I know of in which I have failed to detect any trace 
of pile, or even beard, without being able to explain their 
absence by the reason that the people prefer naked- 
ness, are the Bushmen and Hottentots; and yet these 
are supposed to be the lowest types of man in Africa. 
It would be interesting to know how this would be 
explained. 

Man in all ages and climes seems to have cultivated a 
bare skin as a personal attraction. The ancient Greeks 
and Romans practised the same depilatory processes that 
are in vogue amongst Africans of the present day. Priests 
have thought it pleasing to their gods to live smooth- 
shaven ; and the courtiers and counsellors of many an 
earthly sovereign have trimmed their free-growing beards 
and curtailed their locks, to acquire a greater air of grave 
and stately bearing. It is indeed curious that hairiness 
has always been considered as a sign of ferocity and 
brutal force, and that soldiers should be allowed to wear 
the moustache which a rigid fashion might deny to a 
civilian. 

Human nakedness is incipient in the baboons, and in 
their relative the gelada monkey. These creatures expose 
their naked parts with evident pride, turning them with 

"* This may be said quite as much of other negroes besides the 
Bantu. I have seen Krumen on the Gk)ld Coast whose bodies were 
quite covered with fine curly pile, especially on the btoa&t^^^'^casi^v^ 
tljigh?, and back. 



284 A JOURNEY VP THE Bit EH CONGO. 

complacency to the gaze of foes and friends; not, as 
has been thought, in a spirit of insult, but rather as the 
peacock erects his train and rattles his quills to ravish and 
overawe the looker-on. So in bygone ages the females 
of incipient man contemplated with satisfaction the grow- 
ing nakedness of their husbands, much in the same spirit 
as the she-galada monkey admu^es and strokes with a 
tender touch the great bald patch on the breast of her 
mate. The hands and feet and face are naked in most 
monkeys of the old world, the hinder parts in baboons are 
bald and brilliant. Thenceforth, as some aspiring ape 
struggled on towards humanity, it was rather a gradual 
diminution of hairiness that supervened than absolute 
nakedness, for few men's bodies and limbs in a natural 
state are devoid of hair. 

When man had lost all or nearly all the hair which in 
so many mammals becomes developed into striking orna- 
ments in the male sex, he had attained a sufficient degree 
of intelligence to abandon the slow workings of nature, 
and to call in the aid of art or in ministering to his 
inherent vanity and in decorating his person so as to 
render it more attractive in the eyes of his women. The 
beard and moustache, though already existing in less 
pronounced forms in the higher apes, received a slight 
ulterior development in man, but beyond this there was 
little attempt made to secure any striking physical attrac- 
tion or any analogous development of epidermal colour or 
excrescence such as we meet in many monkeys.* On the 
contrary, man seems to have rather degenerated into 
physical uniformity and insignificance. Looked at from 
the point of view of an antlered stag or a graceful leopard, 
a naked man seems a poor sort of creature. The higher 
beauty of his well-moulded form, and his marked adapta- 
tion to his career, is only perceptible to the asthetically- 
educated minds of his most highly developed examples. 

In the very early days of the history of our genus, 

* As, for instance, the blue-ribbed cheeks of the mandrill, the 
brIIJiantly-colQured genital orgaiva of other baboons, the mane of the 
gelada and coiobus, &c. 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 285 

during that great struggle, not only for existence, but at 
the same time for dominion, from which some one of the 
many great apes emerged as man, there must have been 
little desire or leisure to originate physical adornments by 
sexual selection. All our energies were at that period 
directed to the bare necessities of life, to the procuring of 
food, shelter from enemies, or withstanding the adverse 
effects of altered climates by artificial means. As, how- 
ever, these pursuits had the effect of developing and 
vastly strengthening man's faculties of thought and 
reflection, so when he had attained such a position of 
predominance that his existence as a species was assured, 
the development of physical charms had less attraction 
for him than it possesses for the lower mammalia. 
Sexual selection henceforth was applied more prominently 
to mind than to body, and the most cunning men secured 
the greatest number of wives. At the same time, though 
it has lost its old predominance, bodily beauty still 
exercises, and has exercised greatly in the past, an 
influence on the minor physical characteristics of man- 
kind. The role of arbiter in such matters somewhat 
changed hands. It was the men that began to choose the 
women, and not the women, always, who had the power 
of selecting their husbands. The result of this has been 
that, in one or more of the highest varieties of man, an 
attempt on the part of the weaker sex has been made to 
develop attractive facial colouring, and a greatly exag- 
gerated occipital mane. But men or women alike, in 
their efforts to secure admiration and to satisfy their 
personal vanity, have had impatient recourse to artificial 
means of making themselves attractive, awe-inspiring, 
or ridiculous. Clothing was first adopted as a means of 
decoration rather than from motives of decency. Clothing 
also, under climatic influences, derived a greater develop- 
ment than would have arisen from mere motives of 
decency alone ; and, further, the love of adornment, with 
the desire of pioducing an attractive or imposing appear- 
ance superadded, has induced man at various times to 
make himself a very jackdaw arrayed ix\. ^Vi?^ Vsr^'^j^^^ 



286 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

furs and plumes of his fellow-vertebrates. The ermine 
of a Lord Chancellor may seem a long way removed from 
the monkey-skin caps and mantles of an old African 
" medicine-man," just as the ostrich feathers worn at Her 
Majesty's drawing rooms in England appear to have 
nothing in common with the parrot-plumes that a Ba- 
yansi girl sticks in her hair, but all these extraneous 
decorations are prompted by the same motives. Amongst 
the natives of tropical Africa, however, clothing is irksome 
and out of place. A scrap of grass-cloth suffices for the 
claims of the most prudish modesty. Skins and feathers 
and shells, ivory, metal, and wood, are all pressed into 
the people's service to decorate their persons, and still aii 
amount of naked skin remains uncovered and unadorned. 
Consequently on the Upper Congo, where aesthetic taste 
is more developed than among the less sensitive tribes of 
the Lower river and coast, there exist many contrivances 
for supplementing the insufficiency of nature with the 
finish of art. The skins of the Ba-teke, Ba-yansi, and 
Wa-buma are frequently ornamented with broad lines 
and patterns of pigment, the designs generally following 
the contours of the body. The colours used are generally 
white, yellow, red, brown, and black, which are obtained 
respectively from lime, ochre, '* camwood " and charcoal. 

This "camwood," which I have already mentioned as 
the bark of one or more species of Baphia (illustrated on 
page 83), also supplies the Congo people with a red dye 
like henna, with which their nails, hair, and entire persons 
are occasionally crimsoned. Besides this coloration of the 
skin the surface of the epidermis is often varied with 
incised marks. These are principally tribal in character. 
Thus the Ba-teke are always distinguished by five or six 
striated lines across the cheek-bone, while the Ba-yansi 
scar their foreheads with a horizontal or vertical band. 

The Wa-buma do not seem, as a rule, to mai^k the face 

with any scars, but, in common with most of the Upper 

Congo tribes, they practise " cicatrization," which means 

raising lumps or wheals of skin by slitting it with a knife 

and rubbing , some irritant iuto the incision. This cica- 



THE PEOPLE OF TEE CONGO. 



287 



trization is practised right along the course of the Congo 
up to the Stanley Falls. I give here an illustration of 
the torso of a Mu-ngala from the equator (the only 
specimen of his race I have ever seen) who had nearly 
the wliole of his body thus ornamented. 

The Upper Congo people also spend a great deal of 




Mr;';'';,')!'" 

AN EXAMPLE OP OIOATBIBATIOH. 

time and trouble in dressing their hair. Sometimes the 
bead is shaved all but a small portion of the occiput, on 
which the hair is allowed to grow long and luxuriantly. 
On the fore part the chevelure is mixed with clay and 
grease, and is flattened dowu to the shape of the cranium, 
while behind is a fuzzy mane like an aureola round the 
head. But the infinitude of modes of hair-dreaaiw^ia ^ 



288 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

subject that demands too much space for a detailed 
description, so, merely noting tliat the hair is finer and 
less crimpy in the newly-born children than in the adults, 
and that it is generally more abundant in men tlian 
in women, I will pass on 
" to other physical features 
worthy of note. 

In the Ba-teke tlie brow 
is often prominent, and the 
frontal ridge very slightly 
marked. The nose is gener- 
ally flattened, and always 
very broad at the nostrils ; 
occasionally, however, one 
meets with an individual of 
this tribe possessing a high- 
bridged, somewhat hooked 
nose. 

The Ba-yansi have as 
a rule better-shaped noses 
than either the Warbuma 
or the Ba-teke. Themoutii 
in all these people is a 
variable feature. Some- 
times there are thin, well- 
shaped lips, at other times 
the month is a regular 
" nigger's," with a wide 
gape and everted lips. The 
teeth are always perfect ns 
regards shape and white- 
ness. There is absolute re- 
gularity in tlieir dentition. 
The canines never project 
beyond the other teeth. 
The chin, like the mouth and the nose, varies greatly 
in individuals, but theie is a great predominance of strong 
firm ones over those of a weak and receding type. 
The eyes are much " clearer " than in most Afjican 




A-TEKB WOHAB. 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 289 

races, and the white is less bloodshot. The ears are rather 
large. The figures of these people are admirably modelled 
and developed, so that many of them, with their shining 
glossy skins and their simple nakedness, seem like 
antique statues cast in bronze. In certain examples 
the arms are very long, as in this Ba-teke woman here 
illustrated, but it is not a universal characteristic of the 
race. 

The women usually have better-shaped busts than in 
the Coast people, and in many of them . the nipples have 
a curious tendency to turn up, and not hang down. The 
hands and feet are small and well proportioned. The 
second toe is the longest. 

In character the races of the Upper Congo are kindly, 
lighthearted and full of sensibility to beauty. They are 
fond of colour and of music, and indulge in dancing that 
has much meaning and grace. They are decidedly amorous 
in disposition, but there is a certain poetry in their feelings 
which ennobles their love above the mere sexual lust of 
the negro. Husbands are fond of their own wives, as well 
as those of other people, and many a pretty family picture 
may be seen in their homesteads, when the father and 
mother romp with their children, or sit together in a 
munching group round the supper-pot. 

The absence of gloominess in these pleasant folk may 
be partly accounted for by the absence or dearth of 
vexatious superstitions. Among them there is, as far as I 
can ascertain, no ordeal for witchcraft, they are not pestered 
with initiative ceremonies, indeed, these people are posi- 
tively lacking in " medicine men " — in the " nganga " of 
almost universal sway. Whenever this personage is 
needed for the performance of a few obligatory ceremonies, 
or for the adjudication of disputed legal questions, he is 
borrowed from the tribes of the interior. The Ba-yansi, 
for instance, generally make use of the ngangas of the 
Ba-nunu, a tribe to the south of them. 

In fact these people may be said to be almost without 
religion. They still retain a mild form of ancestor- 
worship, and they have a shadowy ida^ ^i ^ '^^^^Ns^^^ 



290 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

when you ask his name, they always employ a term that 
is identical with heaven or sky. 

They have a vague idea of life after death, and the 
slaves that are slain at a dead chiefs grave are intended 
to serve him as an escort on his mysterious journey. 

When a child is bom no particular ceremonies take 
place. The mother some three months before its birth 
has Uved apart from her husband, and when the time of 
delivery approaches she is attended by the old women of 
her acquaintance. 

Circumcision is performed twelve days after birth by 
the " medicine-man," or in his absence by the chief. Hot 
water is applied continuously to the part till the wound 
is cicatrized. Occasionaly circumcision is avoided in 
early youth, either through the caprice of the mother, or 
because there is no doctor to perform the ceremony. But 
sooner or later the individual is obliged to submit himself 
to the operation, and in this case, if he be more or less 
adult, he is placed close to an immense fire after the 
excision has been made, and remains crouched before the 
heat for two or three days until his wound is healed. 
Circumcision is performed with a sharp knife. 

The child is not often weaned until it is two or three 
years old and all its teeth have come through the gums. 
All the time it is being suckled the mother remains apart 
from her husband. 

When the child is quite young it is taken down to the 
river and taught to swim by it parents. If it is a girl it 
is early instructed in the management of household affairs, 
and learns to cook and otherwise assist its mother, while 
the little boys make small bows and arrows, paddle 
miniature canoes, and ambitiously imitate all the pursuits 
of manhood. 

Marriage is a mere question of purchase, and is attended 
by no rejoicings or special ceremony. A man procures 
as many wives as possible, partly because they labour for 
him, and also because soon after one wife becomes with 
child she leaves him for two or three years until her baby 
is weaned. 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 291 

It is impossible to reckon with any accuracy their 
average duration of life, but, judging from the experience 
of missions long established on the coast, I should think 
the people aged quickly, and that few lived beyond sixty 
or sixty-five years. 

When a slave dies, he is " chucked " without more ado 
into the river or the bush; but when a person of any 
consequence departs this life, he is generally buried under 
the hut he lived in (which is afterwards abandoned), and 
in his grave are put quantities of cloth, beads, plates, 
knives, cowries and other things to enable him to start 
afresh in a new life. The plates are generally broken, 
and the knives bent, in order to " kill " them, so that they 
too may " die," and go to the land of the spirits. When a 
great chief dies four or more slaves are laid transversely 
in his grave, and his body is placed on the top. The 
slaves are not buried alive, but are hung first. After the 
death of a married man, his widow or widows are shut up 
in his house (underneath which he is buried) for a period 
of fifty days, during which time they keep their faces 
blackened with charcoal. 

The food of the Upper Congo people is more mixed in 
character than that of the natives on the Lower river. 
While their diet is largely vegetable, and bananas, ground- 
nuts, manioc, Indian corn, and sweet potatoes are staple 
articles of food, yet other elements vary their repasts. A 
river like the Congo naturally abounds in fish, and the 
riverine natives consume quantities of a food at once 
appetizing and easily procured. 

One tribe on the Upper Congo makes quite a traffic in 
smoked fish, which they sell to the resident tribes along 
the banks or a little way in the interior. It is a most 
common sight to see a group of these Ba-yansi people 
established temporarily on a great sandbank in the 
middle of the river, smoking the newly-caught fish over 
immense wood fires. I have often bought and eaten 
these smoked fish (which are generally large specimens 
of the Percidcc family), and I can only say, provided you 
get one that is not about a yeai oVil ^tA Tv$kS\a^ ^>:s^ 



292 A JOmtNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

worms, they are delicious — yes, emphatically delicious — 
for the smoking over some fragrant cedar-like wood lends 
a flavour of its own to the solid white flesh. Sometimes, 
too, the natives seem to soak them in brine before 
submitting them to the smoking process, and this gives 
an agreeable taste of well-cured haddock to the already 
appetizing fish. The natives generally fish with a kind 
of seine of different shapes. Sometimes there is a net 
like a huge butterfly net, only with a more oblong 
aperture and a very stout handle, but this is only used 
for small fry, while monster fish are usually speared. 
The Ba-teke, who do a little amateur fishing in a lazy 
way, row out to one of the many floating islets of grass 
and water-plants, round which the fishes congregate, and, 
poising well their little lances, harpoon the fish as they 
nibble at the roots just below the surface, gobbling the 
larvae and water insects that cling to them. The little 
Ba-teke boys fish from tlie banks with prettily-made rods, 
lines, and floats. Then there are the most ingenious 
basket-work traps of every size, and it is with these that 
the majority of the fish is caught. Also the mouth of 
every narrow bay is netted, so that the fish in the dry 
season cannot escape, but fall easy victims to omnivorous 
man. 

Snares are made for birds, and the smaller mammals 
are not despised as food, rats especially bemg sought for ; 
but they are chary of hunting large game. The hippo- 
potamus is occasionally pursued and harpooned, but more 
out of revenge for the mischief he wreaks on their canoes 
than from a liking for his flesh. The domestic animals 
of the natives also supply them with food, but they are 
not so meat-eating as the tribes of Eastern or Southern 
Africa, who possess their great herds of cattle. On the 
Upper Congo the ox is unknown, and his old classical 

Bantu name, " Nombu," or " Nombe, is applied by the 

Ba-yansi to the buffalo. The sheep is rarely met with 

beyond Stanley Pool; still it is known and named. It 

belongs to the Central African type — a hairy sheep, with 

small horns, and a magm^cen.\) Taa.\i^ m ^'i x^xcl, which 



THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 293 

extends from the cliin to the stomach, and greatly 
resembles the saioe append^e in the aoudad, or wild 
aheep of Northern Africa. I do not believe, however, 
that this domestic sheep of Central Africa had its origin 
in the " mouflon a manchettes " of Algeria. On the 
contrary, the ewe, which has no mane, and the young 
manelesa rams, exactly resemble certain breeds of Persian 
sheep, like which they are pied black and white in colour. 
The goat of the Congo is a little compactly built animal, 




A CONGO SHEEP. 

short on the legs and very fat. The females make 
excellent milch goats, aud their milk is a most delicious 
and wholesome addition to one's diet. Unfortunately, 
they run dry after three months' milking, and the only 
way to keep up a constant supply of tliis grateful fluid is 
to keep four or five of them at once, and arrange that 
they (dl kid at different times. The natives, however, 
never take this precaution, as they think it disgusting to 
drink milk. 

The general type of the dog on the Upper Congo (on 
the Lower river it is much mixed Ni\tti 'E.M.i's^'istci. -t^Rta*. 



294 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 

introduced by the Portuguese) is simply the pariah dog of 
India and the East over again, with a look of the dingo 
and the wild dog of Sumatra superadded. It has a foxy 
head, prick ears, a smooth fawn-coloured coat, and a tgdl 
slightly inclined to be bushy, and is to my thinking a 
very pretty creature They have one admirable point in 
their character in that they never bark, giving vent only, 
when very much moved, to a long wail or howl. Towards 
Europeans they are disposed to be very snappish and 
uncertain, but the attachment between these dogs and 
their African masters is deep and fully reciprocated. They 
are considered very dainty eating by the natives, and are 
indeed such a luxury that by an unwritten law only the 
superior sex — the men — are allowed to partake of roasted 
dog. The cats on the Congo are lean, long-legged, and 
ugly, and offer every diversity and variety of colour. 
Tabbies, however, are the most commonly seen. These 
cats are splendid mousers, or rather ratters, and help to 
rid the native villages of the small black rats which infest 
them. 

The domestic pig is largely kept, and its flesh much 
eaten by the Congo people. I do not agree with the 
opinion of those who surmise that the pig was originally 
introduced into West Africa and the Congo regions by the 
Portuguese. The pig, in a domestic state, extends among 
the Bantu races right across Africa, and everywhere 
possesses a similar name. The pig in Ki-yansi is called 
" ngulu," and in the Ki-swahili of Zanzibar is known as 
" nguruwe," or " nguluwe." It is a black, bristly, high- 
shouldered beast, very like the Irish greyhound pig. Like 
most African domestic animals, it probably had an Asiatic 
origin. 

The fowl on the Congo is small and mongrel-like. It 
is however very productive; and, as its eggs are rarely 
eaten by the natives, but are allowed to be hatched by 
the hen that lays them, the domestic fowl swarms in 
the villages, and is a never-failing article of merchan- 
dise. 

The Muscovy duck liaa peiififet^\»^dL \)Q \.\\^ "lli^^r Congo 



THE PEOPLE OF TEE CONGO. 295 

from the eoast, where it was introduced by the Portuguese 
in the seventeenth century. 

Among the moat usuaJIy cultivated plants and trees 
may be mentioned the Cajanus indiciis, the manioc, the 
sweet potato, maize, ground -nuta, tobacco, the sugar-cane, 
the banana and the oil-palm. Among other Portuguese 
introductions that have reached them from the West Coast 
are the pine-apple, the orange, lime, papaw, and a small 
degenerated cabbE^e. 

It is curious to remark that, while nearly all the 




BA-TXKE OBAIB. 

domestic animals of Africa can be traced to an Asiatic 
origin, the cultivated plants of this region should in a 
great measure be introductions from America. It is 
difficult to ims^ne how the people could have lived before 
maize, manioc, ground-nuts, and sweet potatoes were 
brought to the coast of Africa by the Portuguese and 
other European nations since the sixteenth century. The 
discovery of America has profoundly affected the later 
history of the Dark Continent. 

The houses in the Upper Congo villages do not differ 
materially in design or material from those already de- 
scribed on the Lower river. They aie alLV iftticSttiRMx w^^- 



A JOURNEY UP TBE BIVES CONGO. 



oblong in shape, with slanting roofs and wide verandaha. 
At_ Bolobo they exhibit some skill in building, and are 




divided into several rooms or partitions. In the attempts 
at furniture, however, we meet with decided improvement 
over the £a-kou20. CTiaVia auA a^Wafta are hewn out of 



THE PEOPLE OF THE OONOO. 



297 



single blocks of wood -without joinery (which art is un- 
known), and some of them exhibit grace of form and 
adaptation to the purpose for which they are made. 
Many pretty little things are carved in wood and orna- 
mented with brass-work ; pillows or head-rests are made, 
much like those used by the ancient Egyptians, and 
powder-flasks are hollowed out of soft wood and decorated 
with burnt patterns made with a piece of red-hot iron. 
Examples of the pottery are here illustrated. There is 
no potter's wheel in use. All the utensils are made in 
basket-moulds or shaped with the hand. 

I have already mentioned the ability these people 
display in artistic decoration, and their love of music is 
also worthy of notice. Besides the drum, they use the 
horns of Tragdaphus gratus, and otlier tragelaphine 
antelopes, as trumpets, ftom which a fine resonant sound 
is produced. The Ba-teke children, 
moreover, make trumpets from 
rolled banana leaves. For the dis- 
coursing of melody, they have a 
form of " marimba," an instrument 
of widespread range, which in prin- 
ciple is so many thin slips or keys 
of metal arranged along a sound- 
ing-board. When twanged by a 
practised touch they yield very 
sweet sounds. For real beauty of 
tone, however, the five-stringed lyre 
on the Congo is remarkable, and 
the native musicians produce from 
this instrument melodies both I 
quaint and touching. The penta- 
tonic scale is the one in use, and ! 
the notfis run thus : C, D, E, G, A, 
G, the fourth and seventh being 
omitted. 

Neither the Ba-teke nor the 
Wa-huma appear to be great workers in metal, like the 
Ea-yansi, 'fiiese latter people appear to tecMvt% *s5is 




A KATIVX LYKB. 



A JOUBNEY UP THE BIVES COSQO. 






BA-TAirai CHOPPER. AXK OF AUTDoairr 



TEE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 299 

iron mostly from tribes farther inland, at any rate there is 
no sign of its being smelted from the ore near the banks 
of the Congo, although iron is present in the soil. 

The Ba-yansi beat out the iron when red hot, and 
fashion it into many shapes of knives, hatchets, and 
axes. They sell most of their knives to the Bateke and 
Wa-buma. 

Most of the chiefs, especially among the Ba-teke, use 
an axe of a particular shape (see illustration) as a sceptre, 
or sign of authority. This axe differs entirely from the 
ordinary chopper form of the tool in daily use, and is 
purely a ceremonial weapon, being quite blunt at the 
edges, and useless for cutting. It is always regarded as a 
sign of authority, and the actual weapon that is here 
illustrated belonged to De Brazza's friend Makoko, before 
he was deposed. 

The population all along the Congo above Stanley Pool 
is very dense. Towards Bolobo there is scarcely a river- 
fronting space clear of villages, and Mr. Stanley reckons 
from fidler data that the entire population of the Congo 
basin may possibly amount to 49,000,000, or 55 to the 
square mile ! These masses do not own one great chief or 
emperor. There is no analogue to the Muata Yanvo, or 
the negro kingdoms farther north. Such chiefs as Ibaka 
or Mpumo Ntaba * may rule over a few thousand subjects, 
but ordinarily every village or settlement is a little 
independent state. Much has been talked lately about 
the desirability of introducing some soit of political co- 
hesion amongst these tribes — of inducing them to band 
together into one great nationality. This idea has been 
put forward on high authority, but I must presume to 
dissent from its advisability. What has hitherto made 
Mr. Stanley's work so rapid and so comparatively easy has 
been the want of cohesion amongst the native chiefs ; he 
has had no great jealous empire to contend with, as he 
would have had farther north or farther south. If one 
village declined to let him settle among them, the next 

* Makoko's successur. 



300 



A JOVBSEY VF THE BtVER CONGO. 



town out of rivalry, received him with open arms. There 
has been no mot d^ordre, and this has enabled him to 
effectually implant himself in their midst. By banding 
tlie native kmglets in union — union which would in- 
evitably turn them with race jealousy against the white 
man, the entry of civilization into the Congo countries 
will be hindered, and this great work made dependent on 
the caprices of an African despot. The black man, though 
he may make a willing subject, can never rule. These 
lieople are well disposed in their present condition to 
receive civilization, but the civilization must come not as 
a humble suppliant but as a monarch. It must be able to 
inspire respect as well as naive wonder, and this is what 
the expedition aa conducted by Mr. Stanley has succeeded 
in doing. 




St. DUNSTAN*S ttoUSfi, FfitTER LaNE, 

London, E.C. August, 1895. 



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■ J. K., Kangaroo and 

Kauri, 7s. Gd. 

Artistic Japan, vols. I. -VI.. 

15s. each. 
Artists at Home^ photos, \2s, 
ASHE, R. P., Two Kings of 

Uganda, 3s. 6(i. 
Uganda, England's latest 

Charge, stiff cover, Is. 
ATCHISOK, 0. C, Winter 

Cruise in Summer Seas, 7s. 6d, 
ATKINSON", J. B. Oi;erbeck.- 

See Great Artists. 

ATTWELL, Italian Mastei^s, 

in the National Gallery, 3s. 6</. 

AUDSLEY, G. A., Chr<mo- 

lithography, 63s. 

— Ornamental Arts of Japan, 
2 yoIb, movooQO^ 231. 2d, \ iouc 
partB, 151 15$^ 



AUDSLEY, W. and G. A., Out- 
lines of Ornament in all Stylet, 
31 s. 6(2. 

AUERBACH, B., Dngitta (B. 

Tauchnitz), 2s. ; sawed, la. dd. 
On the Heights (B.Tauch- 

nits), 3 yols. 6s.; sewed, As. 6(i. 
Spinoza (B. Tauchniti), 

a novel, 2 vols. 4s. 

AUSTEN, F. v., Elfie'8 Visit 

to Cloudland, 8s. 6d. 

BACON. See Eng.Pliilosophers. 

T> KLJ A,Biographg, 10s, 6d, 

BADDELEY, W. St. Clair, 

Love*s Vintage; sonnets Ac, 5s. 
— Tchay and Chianti, 5«. 

Travel-tide, Is, Qd. 

BAKER, James, John Westa- 

eott, new edit. 3s. 6d. 

Foreign Competitors, Is. 

See also Low's Standard Novels. 
R. HiNDLB, Organist and 



\ 



Choir mastfi^s Diary, 2s. 6d, 

BALDWIN, James, Stori/ of 

Siegfried, illust. 6s. 

Story of Roland, illust. 6». 

Story of the Oolden Age, 

illust. 6s. 
BALL, J. D., Things Chinese^ 

new edit., 10s. Qd. 

BALLIN, A. S., Science of 

Dre's, 6s. 

BAMFORD, A. J., Turbans 

and Tails, 7s. 6d. 

BANCROFT, G., History of 

America, new ed. 6 vols. 73s. 6(2. 
Barhizon Painters. See Great 

Aj^tiflts 

BARLOW, Alfred, Weaving 

hy Hand and Power, new ed. 25s. 

P. W,,Kaipara,NewZ.,6s. 

W., Matter and Foree^ 1 2«. 

BARR, Amelia E., Preacher^i 

Daughter, 5s. 

Blower qf Oala Watery 



In all Departments of Literature. 



BAEKOW, J., Mountain 

ABtefni&{yn'Bnq\and,)i new edit. 5s. 

BARRY, J. \V., ,Gorsican 

Studies, 12s. ; new edit. 6s, 

BASSETT, Legends of the Sea 

and SailorSf 7s. 6d. 

BATHGATE, A., Waitaruna, 

a Story of New Zealand^ 5s. 
Bayard Series, edited by the 
late J. Hain Friswell; flexible 
cloth extra, 2s. 6d. each. 

Chevalier Bayard, by Berville. 
St. Louis, by De Joinville. 
Essays of Cowley. 
Abdallah, by Laboullaye. 
Table-Talk of Napoleon. 
Vathek, by Beckford. 
Cayalier and Puritan Songs. 
Words of Wellington. 
Johnson's Rasselas. 
Hazlitt's Round Taole. 
Browne's Religio Medici. 
Ballad Stories of tho Affections, by 

Robert Buchanan. 
Coleridge's Chrlstabel, &c. 
Chesterfield's Letters. 
Essays in Mosaic, by Ballantyne. 
My Uncle Toby. 
Rochefoucauld, Reflections. 
Socrates, Memoirs from Xenophon. 
Prince Albert's Golden Precepts. 

BEACONSFIELD, See Prime 
Ministers. 

BEALE, A. A., Feeding in In- 
fancy, Gd. and Is. 

BEATTIE, T , Pamhaniso, 68. 

BEAUGRAND, Young Natu- 
ralists, new edit. 5s. 

BECICER, A.L., First German 

Book, Is.; Exercises, Is./ Key to 
both, 2s. 6d. ; Idioms, Is. 6d. 

BECKFORD. SeeBay aid Series. 

BEECHER, H. W., Biography, 

new edit. 10s. 6d, 
BEETHOVEN. See Groat 

Musicians. 

BEHNKE, E., Child* s Voice, 

3s. 6d. 



BELL, Mrs. A., History oj 

Arty 10s. 6d. 

Hon. H. J., Obeah, Witch- 

craft in the West Indies, 3s. 6d. 

Witch's Legacy, '2s. 6d, 

Gold Coast Geography. 

L., Little Sister to the 



Wilderness, 3s. 6d, 

Love Affairs of an Old 



Maid, 3s. 6d. 

BENTHALL, J., Hebrew Poets, 

lOs. 6d, 
Berlioz, Life of, lOs, 6d, 
BERRY, C. A. See Preachers. 

BIART, Lucien. See Low's 
Standard Books and Rose Library. 
BICKERDYKE, Irish Mid- 

summer Night's Dream, Is. 

BICKERSTETH,AsHLEY, B.A., 

Harmony of History, 2s. 6d. 
Outlines of Roman History, 28. 6d. 

E. and F., Doing and 

Suffering, new cd., 2s. 6d. 

E. H., Bishop of Exeter, 



Clergyman in his Home, Is. 

From year to year. 



original poetical pieces, morocco 
or calf, 10s. 6d.; padded roan, 
5s.; cloth, 3s. Gd. 

Hymnal Companion to tite 



CommonPrayer, full lists post free. 

Master s Home Ccdl, now 



edit. Is. 

Octave of Hy7nns, sewiiy 3d,, 



with music. Is. 

— TIieReef, Parables, iWust., 

— Shadow of the Rock, 2s, 6d, 

— Shadoiced Home, n. ed. 5*. 
Miss M., Japan as we 



saw it, illust. from photos., 21s. 

BIGELOW, John, France and 

the Confederate Navy, 7s. 6d. 

BILLROTH, Care of the Sick fis, 
BIRD, F. J., Dyer's Companion, 

42s. 



A Select List of Books 



BLACK, William. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 
R., Death no Bane^ 55. 

History of Hcrse Bacing 

in France^ lis, 

BLACKBURN, C. F., Cata- 

logue Titles, Index Entries, Sfc. 145. 

Rambles in Books, or. 8vo. 

6«. ; edit, de luxe, 13s. 

H., Art in the Mountains, 



new edit. 55. 

— Artistic Travel, 7s. 6c?. 

— Breton Folk, n. e., 10s. Gd, 



BLACK MORE, R. D., Georgics 

of Virgil, is. 6d. ; cheap edit. 1^. 
See also Low's Standard Novels. 

BLAIKIE, How to get Strong, 

new edit. 55. 
Sound Bodies for our Boijs 

and Oirls, 2s. 6d. 
Boas,Texthookof Zoology . 2 vols, 

Bobby, a Story, by Vesper, Is. 
B0CK,Temples^Elej)hants,2ls. 

Bonaparte, Decline and fall of, 

by Wolseley, 35. 6d, 
BON WICK, Jambs, Colonial 

Bays, 2s. 6d. 

Colonies, Is. each ; 1 vol. 

55. 

Daily Life of the Tas- 

manianSf 12s. 6d. 

First Twenty Years of 



Australia, 55. 

Irish Druids, 6«. 

— Last of the Tasmanians, 1 6s, 
Port Philip, 21s. 

— Romance of Wool Trade, 6s, 

— Lost Tasmanian Race, 4s. 



BOSANQUET, C, JeJwshaphat, 

1. 
Lenten Meditations, Ser. I. 

l5. ed, ; II. 2s. 

Tender Grass for Lambs, 



2s. 60. 



BOULTON, N. W, Rebellions, 

Canadian life, 95. 

BOURKE, On the Border with 
Crook, illust., roy. Svo^ 2l5. 

Snake Dance of Arizona, 

with coloured plates, 21s. 

BOUSSENARD. See Low's 
Standard Books. 

BOWEN, F., Modern Philo- 
sophy, new ed. 16s. 

BOWER, G. S., and WEBB, 

Law of Electric Lighting, 12s. 6d. 

BOWNE, B. p., Metaphysics, 

125. 6d. 
BOYESEN, H. H., Against 

Heavy Odds, 55. ; also 85. 6d. 

History of Norway, 7s. 6d. 

Modem Vikings, 3s. 6d. 

Boys, vols. I., II., 7s. 6d. each. 
BRACE, 0. L., Life, 8s. ed. 
BRADSHAW, JVew Zealand 

as it is, 12s. 6d, 

NewZealandofTo- day, 1 4s. 

BRANNT, Fats and Oils, 4:2s, 

Scourer and Dyer, 1 O3, 6d. 

Soap and Candles, 35s. 

Vinegar, Acetates, 25s. 

Distillation of Alcohol, 

12s, 6d. 

Metal Worker^ s Rceipts, 

12s. 6i. 

Metallic Alloys, 12s. 6d, 

Petroleum, 35s. 

and WAHL, Techno^ 



Chemical Receipt Boole, 10s. 6(i. 

BRETON, Jules, Ufe of an 

Artist, an autobiography, 7s. 6d. 

BRETT, Edwin J., Ancient 

Arms and Armour, 105s. nett. 

BRIGHT, John, Letters of, 5s. 

BRINE, Admiral L., Travels, 

21s. 
BRISSE, Menus and Recipes, 

French & English, new ed. 85. 6d. 
^ Britom ia Bi^ittauy^ 2«, 6<i 



k 



In all Departments of Literature. 



BROOKS, G., Industry and 

PYoperiy, 3s. 6d. 
Noah, Boy Settlers, 6a ; 

new ed., 8s, 6d, 

Stdtesmeriy 8«. 6</. 



BROWN, A. J., Rejected oj 

Men, and other poemSy 3s. 6(2. 
A. S. Madeira and Canary 

Islands for InvalidSf n. ed. 2s. 6d, 

South Africa, 2s, 6d. 

Robert. See Low's 



Standard Novels. 

BROWNE, Lennox, and 

BEHNKB, Voice, Song, ^ Speech, 
15s. ; new edit. 5s. 

The Child's Voice, 3s. 6d. 

Voice Use, 3s. 6d. 

BRYCE, G., Manitoba, 7s. 6d. 
Short History of the 

Canadian People, 7s. 6d. 

BULKELEY, Owen T., Lesser 

Antilles, 2s. 6(2. 

BUNYAN. See Low's Stan- 
dard Series. 

BURDETT-COUTTS, Brook- 

field Stud, 5s. 

^— Baroness, Woman's Mis- 
sion, Congress papers, lO/!. 6d. 
BURNABY, Eyelyis, Ride from 

Land*s End to John o* Groats, 3s. 6d. 

Mrs., High Alps in Win- 
ter, 14s. See also Main. 
BURNLEY, James, History of 

Wool and Wool-comhing, 21s. 

BURTON, W. K., Works on 

Japan. List on application. 

BUTLER, Col. Sir W. F., 

Cc^mpaign of the Cataracts, 18*. 
See also Low's Standard 

Books. 
BUXTON, Etuel M. Wilmot, 

Wee Folk, 5s. 

BYNNER. See Low's Stan- 
dard Novels. 

CABLE, G. W., See J^w's 

Standard Novels* 



CADOGAN, Lady Adelaide, 

Drawing-room Comedies, illast, 
lOs. Qd., acting edit. 6(2. 

ntustrated Games of 

Pacience, col. diagrams, 12.<». 6d. 
- New Games of Patience, 



with ooloared diagrams, 12s. 6d. 

CAHUN. See Low's Standard 

Books. 

CALDECOTT, Randolph, 

Memoir, by Henry Blackburn, 5s, 

Sketches, pict. bds. 2s. 6d. 

CALL, Annie Payson, Power 

through Repose, 8s. 6d. 

As a Matter of Course, 

3s. 6d. 

CALL AN, H., M.A., Wander- 
ings on Wheel, Is. 6d. 
CALVERT, Edward (aiiist), 

Zlemoir, imp. 4to, 63s. nett. 

Cambridge Trifles, 2s. M, 
Cambridge Staircase, 2s. 6d, 
CAMPBELL, Lady Colin, 

Book of the Running Brook, 6s. 

CAMPELLO, Count, Life, 5s. 
CANTERBURY, Archbishop. 

See Preachers. 
Capitals of the World, plates 

and text, 2 vols., 4to, 63s. nett. 

CARBUTT, Mrs., Five Months 
Fine Weather ; Canada, ^c, 5s. 

CARLETON, Will, City 

Ballads, illust. 12s. 6(2. 

City Legends, ill. 12s. VhI. 

Farm Festivals, ill. 12*-. (jd. 

City Ballads, 1«. ") 1 vol., 

City Legends, Is. ) 2s. 6(/. 

City Festivals; \s, 

Farm Ballads, \s. 

Farm Festivals ^ 

Farm Legends, 

Poems, 6 vols, in case, 8s. 

See also Rose Library. 

CARLYLE, T., Conversations 



lads, 1«. ) , , 
wah,ls. [ gjg^; 
ends, Is. ) 



A Select List of Books 



CARMICHAEL, H. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 
CARNEGIE, Andrew, Ameri- 

can Four-in-hand in Britain, 
lOs. 6d. ; also Is, 

Triumj^hant Democracy^ 

6s. ; new edit. Is. 6(1. ; paper, Is. 

CAUOVE, Story without an 

End, illust. by E. V. B., 7s. 6i. 
CARPENTER. See Preachers. 
CARSON, H. L., Supreme 

Court of U.S. 84s. 
CAVE, Picturesque Ceylon^ 

2 vols , 21s. and 28s. nett. 
Celebrated MaceJiorses, fac-sim. 

portraits, 4 toIs., 126s. 

CELliiRE. See Low's Stan. 

dard Books. 
Changed Cross, &c<, poems, 2s, 6d. 

Chant-hook Companion to Vie 
Common Prayer, 2s. ; organ ed. 4s. 

CHAPIN, Mountaineei^ing in 
Colorado, 10s, 6iZ. 

CHAPLIN, J. G., Bookkeeping, 
2s, ed, 

CHARLES, J. F. See Play, 

time Library. 

CHARLEY, SIR W., Crusade 
against the Constitution, 7s, 6d, 

CRATIOCK,Notes on Etching, 
new edit. 10s. 6cl. 

CHENEY, A. N., Fishing with 

the Fly, 12s. 6d, 

CHERUBINL See Great 
Musicians. 

Choice Editions of choice books, 
illustrated by Cope, Croswick, 
Birket Foster, Horsley, Harrison 
Weir, &c., 2s. 6d. j re-issue, Is. 
each. 

Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy. 

Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. 

Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. 

Elizabethan Songs and Sonnets. 

Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. 

Gray's Elegy in a Churchyard. 
KeatB* Eve of 8b. Agnes. 



Choice Editions — continued, 
Milton's Allegro. 
Poetry of Nature, by H. Weir. 
Bogers' Pleasures of Memory. 
Shakespeare's Songs and Sonnets 
Tennyson's May Queen. 
Wordsworth's Pastoral Poems. 
Chopin, Life of, 10s. 6rf. 
CHRISTIAN, S., Lydia, 2s. ^d. 

Sarah, 2s. 6d. 

Two Mistakes, 3s. 6d. 

CHURCH, W. C, Life of 

Ericsson, new ed., 16fi. 

CHURCHILL, Lord Ran- 

DOLPH, Men, Mines and Animals 
in South Africa, 6s. ; 2*. 6d. 

CLARK, A., Woe to the Con. 

quered, 21s. 

Dark Place of the Earth, 6s. 

Mrs. K. M., SoutheiTi 

Cross Fairy Tale, 5s, 

Persephone, Poems, bs. 



CLARKE, Percy, ThreeBiggers, 
6s. 

Valley Council; 6s. 

Claude le Lorrain. See Great 

CLIVE' BAYLY, Vignettes 

from Finland. 

COCHRAK, W., Pen and 

Pencil in Asia Minor, 21». 

COLLINGWOOD, H. See 

Low's Standard Books. 

COLLYER, Robert, Things 

Old and New, Sermons, 5s. 

CONDER, J.,Flowers of Japan 

and Decoration, coloured Plates, 
42s. nett. 

Landscape Gardening in 

Japan, 52s.6d. nett. ; supplement. 
36s. nett. 

CONY BE ARE, E., School 

Chronology, Is, 

CORDINGLEY, W. G., Guide 

to the Stock Exchange, bs. 

CORREGGIO. See Gre^t 



In all Departments of Literature, 



COWEN, Joseph, M,F,, Life 

aniJi Speeches^ lis, 

COW PER, F., Hunting of the 

Atilc^ 58. 
COX, David. See Great Artists. 

J. Chablks, Gardens of 

Scripture; Meditations, 58. 

COZZENS, F., Afnerican 

Yachts, pfs. 211, ; art. pfg. 311, lOs. 

S. Vr. See Low's Stan- 
dard Books. 

CRADDOCK. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 

CRAIG, W. H., Dr. Johnson 

and the Fair Sex. 

CRAIK, D., Millwricjht and 

Miller, 2U 

CROCKER, Education of the 
Horse, Ss, Gd, nett. 

CROKER, Mrs. B. M. See 

Low's Standard Novels. 

CROSLAND, Mrs. Kewton, 

Landmarks of a Literary Life, 
7s. 6d. 

CROUCH, A. R, Glimpses of 

Feverland (West Africa), Gs. 
On a Surf 'hound Coast ^ 

7s, 6d. ; new edit. 5*. 

CRUIKSHANK, G. See 

Great Artists. 

CUDWORTH, W., Abraham 

Sluxrp, Mathematician, 2Qs, 

CUMBERLAND, Stuart. 

See Low's Standard Novels. 
CUNDALL, J., Shakespearej 

85. Gd., and 2s, 

History of Wood Engrav- 
ing, 2s, 

CURTIS, C. B., Velazquez and 

Murillo, with etchings, 31s. Gd. ; 
large paper, 638. 

CUNNINGHAM & ABNEY, 

Pioneers of the Alps, 21s, 
Almer*s Fuhrerhuch, 30*. 

CUSHING, W., Anonyms, 2 

vols. 52s. Gd, 



CUSHING, W., Initials and 

Pseudonyms, 25« ; ser. II., 21a. 

CUTCLIFFE, II. C, Trout 

Fishing, new edit. Ss, Gd, 

CUTHELL, E. E., Baireuih 

■ Pilgrimage, 12«. 

DALY, Mrs. Dominic, Digging, 

Squatting in N, 8, Australia, 12s, 

D'ANVERS, N., Architecture 

and Sculpture, new edit 5s. 
Eleme7itanj Art, Arclii' 

tectiire, Sculpture, Painting, new 
edit. I2s, and 10s. Gd. 

Painting, new ed. by F. 



Cnndall, 6s. 

DAUDET, Alphonse, Port 

Tarascon, by H. James, 7s. Gd,; 
also 5s. and 3s. 6d. 

DAYlES,C,,Modern Whist, is. 

— Rev. D., Talks with Men, 6s, 

DAVIS, C. T., Manufacture of 
Leather, 52s. Gd, 

Manufacture ofPapei\ 28c?. 

Manvfaclureof JJricJcs 25?. 

Steam Boiler Incrustation, 

Ss.Gd, 

G. B., Jnternationdl Law, 



10s. 6d. 

R. II., Our English 



Cousins, 6s. 

DAWIDOWSKY, Glue, Gela- 
tine, Veneers, Cements, 12s, Gd, 
Day of my Life, by an Eton boy, 

new edit. 2s. 6d. ; also Is. 

Days in Clover, by the "Ama- 
teur Angler," Is.; illust., 2s. 6d. 

DELLA ROBBIA. See Great 

DEMAGE, G., Pluiige into 

Sahara, 5s. 

DERR Y (B. of). See Preachers. 
DE WINT. See Groat Artists. 
DIGGLE, J. W., BisJiop Fra- 

ser^s Lancashire Life, new edi\ 
128. 6<2. ; popular ed. 3v. 6(7. 
SeTmoua jot Do.\X>i lA^^.?:^*^ 



8 



A Select List of Books 



i^ 



DIKUF, 0., Kissingenj 5s, and 

35. 6(Z. 

DOBSON, Austin, Hogartli, 

illast. 248. ; 1. paper 525. 6d. ; new 
ed. 128. 6d. 
DOD, Peerage^ Baronetage^ 

and Knightage f for 1895, 10^. Qd, 

DODGE, Mrs., Hans Brinker. 

See Low's Standard Books. 
Doing and Suffering ; memo- 
rials nfE, and F, Bicker8tethf2s, 6d, 

DONKIN, J. G., Trooper and 

BedsJiin ; Canada police, 88. 6d, 

DONNELLY, Ignatius, ^«a7i- 

iiSj the Antediluvian Worldfl28. 6d. 

C(3eaar'«CbZw7nw, authorised 

edition, 38. 6d. 

Doctor Huguetf Ss, 6d, 

Great Cryptogram, Bacon's 

Cipher in the so-called Shak- 
spere Plays, 2 vols., 30*. 

RagnaroJc : the Age of 



Fire and Gravely 12«. Qd, 

DORE, GusTAVE, Life and Re- 

miniscences, by Blanche Boose* 
velt, fully illnst. 248. 

DOUGALL, J. D., Shooting 

Appliances, Fraciice^ n. ed. 78. 6rf. 

DOUGLAS, James, Bombay 

and Western India, 2 vols., 428, 

DU CHAILLU, Paul. See 

Low's Standard Books. 

DUFFY, Sir C. G., Conversa- 
tions with Carlyle, 6s. 

DUMAS, A., Company of Jehu, 
Is, 

First Republic, 7s. 

Last Vendee, Ts, 
DUNCKLEY (" Verax.") See 

Prime Ministers. 

DUNDERD ALE, George, 

Prairie and Bush, 6s, 

Diirer, See Great Artists. 
DYER, T. F., Strange Fages, 

38. 6d. 

DYKES, J, Os w. See Pxeac\ieTa. 



EBERS, G., FerAspera, 2 vols., 

2l8.; new ed., 2 vols., 48. 
Cleopatra, 2 vols., 6*. 

In the Fire of the Forge, 

2 vols., 68. 
EDMONDS, C., Foetry of the 

Anti-Jacobin, new edit, 78. 6d. 

EDWARDS, American Steam 

Engineer, 12s, 6d, 

Modem Locomotive En^ 

gines, 128. Qd. 

Steam Engineer's Guide, 



12s, 6d. 

M, B., Dream of Millions, 



^C, l8. 

See also Low's Standard 
Novels. 

EDWORDS. Camp Fires of a 

Naturalist, N, Am, Mammals, 6s, 

EGGLESTON, G. Cart, Jug. 

gernaut, 6s, 

Egypt, By S. L. Poole, 3a 6d. 
ELIAS, N., Tankh i Rishidi, 

308. nett. 

Elizabethan Songs, See Choice 
Editions. 

ELVEY, SIR GEORGE, Life, 

8s. 6d, 

EMERSON,Dr. p. H., English 

Idylls, new ed., 28. 
Pictures of East Anglian 

Life, 1058. ; large paper, 1478. 

Son of the Fens, 6s, 

See also Low's Is. Novels. 

— and GOOD ALL, Life on 

the Norfolk Broads, plates, 1268. ; 
large paper, 2108. 

— and GOODALL, Wild 

Life on a Tidal Water, copper 
plates, 25*. ; idit de luxe, 638. 

Ralph Waldo, in Con* 



\ 



cord, a memoir by E. W. Emer 
son, 78. 6d. 

EMERY, G. F.. Guide to Parish 
Councils Act, Id, each. 
Parish Councils^ 2«. . 



In all Departments of Literature. 



EMERY, a F., Parish Meetings, 
2s. 

English Catalogue, 1872-80, 
42s. J ISSl-y, 525. 6d. ; 1890-94, 
5s. each. 

English Catalogue, Index vol, 

1856-76, 42s.; 1874-80, 18s.; 
1881-89, 31s. 6d. 

English Philosophers, edited by 

E. B. Ivan Miiller, 3s. 6d. each. 
Baoon, by Fowler. 
Hamilton, by Monck. 
Hartley and James Mill, by Bower. 
Shaftesbury & Hatoheson ; Fowler. 
Adam Smith, by J. A. Farrer. 

ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN. 

See Low's Standard Books. 

ESLER, E. Rbntoul, TJie Way 

they Loved at Grimpatt 3s. 6d. 

Maid of the Manse, 3s. 6d. 

Mid Green Pasture8,3s, 6d, 

Way of Transgressors^ 

ESMARCH, E., Handbook of 

Surgery, with 647 new illast. 24s. 

EVANS, G. E., Repentance of 
Magdalene Despar, ^c, poems, 5s. 

S. & F., Upper Ten, a 

story, Is. 

W. E., Songs of the Birds, 



Analogies of Spiritual Life, 6s. 
EVELYN. See Low's Stand. 

Books. 
■^— John, Life of Mrs. Godol- 

phin, 7s. 6d. 

EVES, C. W., West Indies, 

n. ed. 7s. 6(2. 

Explorers of Africa, 2 vols., 
25s. 

EYRE-TODD, Anne of Argyle, 
6s. 

FAGAN, L., History of En- 
graving in England, illast. from 
rare prints, £25 nett. 

FAIRBAIRN. See Preachers. 

Faith and Criticism; Essays 
{^t/ Congre^ationalists^ 6s* 



Familiar Words, See Gentle 
Life Series. 

FARINI, G. A., Through the 

Kalahari Desert, 21s. 
Farragut, Admiral, by Capt. 

Mahan, Qs, 

FAWCETT, Heir to Millions, 
6s. 

American Push, 6«, 

See also Rose Library. 

FAY, T., Three Germany s, 2 
vols. 85s. 

FEILDEN, H. St. J., Some 

Public Schools, 2s. 6(2. 

Mrs., My African Home, 

7s. 6d. 
FENN, G. Manville. Black , 

Bar, illnst. 5s., 3s. 6d. and 2s. Gd, 
■^— Fire Island, 6s. 
See also Low's Stand. Bks 

FFORDE, B., Subaltern, Police- 
man, and the Little Girl, Is. ■ 

- Trotter, a Poona Mystety, Is, 

FIELDS, James T., Memoirs, 

12s. 6d. 
— — Yesterdays with Authors, 

10s. 6(£. 
FINCK, Henry T., Pacific 

Coast Scenic Tour, fine pi. 10s. 6d. 

FISHER, G. P., Colonial Era 

in America, 7s. 6d, 

FITZGERALD, Perot, Book 

Fancier, 5. ; large paper, 12s. 6d. 

FITZPATRICK, T.. Autumn 

Cruise in the ^gean, 10s. Gd. 

Transatlantic Holiday, 

10s. 6d. 

FLEMING, S., England and 

Canada, 6s. 

FLETCHER, Public Libaries 

in America, 8s. 6d. 
Fly Fisher's Register of Date, 
Place, Time Occupied, S^c, 4s. 

FOLKARD, R., Plant Lor^ 



lO 



A Select List of Books 



FOREMAN", J., Philippine 

Islands, 21s, 

FOSTER, B., Some Places of 

Note, 63 s. 

F. P., Medical Dictionary y 

1808. nefct. 

FRANC, Maud Jeanne, Beat- 
rice Melton, 4i8, 
Emily's Choice, n. ed. bs. 

Golden Gifts, 4s. 

HalVs Vineyard, 4^. 

Into the Light, 4«. 

JohrHs Wife, 4«. 

Little Mercy ; 4«. 

Marian, a Tale, n. ed. 55. 

Master of Ralston, 4«. 

Minnie's Mission, 4s. 

No longer a Child, 45. 

Silken Coi'ds, a Tale, 45. 

Two Sides to JEvery QueS" 

tion, is, 
— — Vermont Vale, 6*. 

A plainer edition is issued at 2s. 6d. 

Frank's Ranche ; or. My Holi- 
day in the Rockies, n. ed. 5s. 
FRASER, Sir W. A., Hie et 

uhique, 3s, 6d, ; large paper, 21s. 

FREEMAN, J., Melbourne Life, 

lights and shadows, 6s. 
French and English Birthday 

Book, hj Kate D. Clark, 78. 6d, 

French Readers. See Low. 
Fresh Woods and Pastures New, 

by the Amateur Angler, Is. Gd. 

FRIEZE, Dujyre, Florentine 

Sculptor, 7s. 6cl. 

FRISWELL. See Gentle Life. 

Froissartfor Boys. See Lanier. 

FROUDE, J. A. See Prime 
Ministers. 

FRY, H., History of North 

Atlaniic Navigation, 78. 6d. 

Omnsbo7*ough and Constable, 
See Great Artists. 



GARLAND, Hamlin, Prairie 

Folks, 6s. 

GASPARIN, Sunny Fields and 

8hady Woods, 6s. 

GEFFCKEN, Bntish Empire, 

translated, 7s. 6d, 
Gentle Life Series, edited by J. 
Hain Friswell, 16ino, 25. 6d. each. 

Gentle Life. 

Abont in the World. 

Like unto Christ. 

Familiar Words, 6s. ; also 3s. 6d, 

Montaigne's Essays. 

Grentle Life, second series. 

Silent honr ; essays. 

Half-length Portraits. 

Essays on English Writers. 

Other People's Windows, Gs. &2s. 6d, 

A Man's Thoaghts. 

GESSI, RoMOLO Pasha, Seven 

Year 9 in the Soudan, 18s. 

GHIBERTI & DONATELLO 

See Great Artists. 
GIBBS, W. A., Idylls of the 
Queen, Is., 5s., & 3s. ; Proludo, Is. 

GIBSON, W. H., Happy Hunt- 

ing Grounds, 31s. 6d, 

GILES, E., Australia Twice 

Traversed, 1872-76, 2 vols. 30s. 
GILL, J. See Low's Readei-s. 

GILLIAT. See Low's Stand. 

Novels. 
Giotto, by Harry Quiltcr, illust. 

15s. Se^ also Great Artists. 

GLADSTONE, W. E. See 

Prime Ministers. 

GLAVE, E. J., Congoland, 
Six Years* Adventure, 7s. 6d, 

Goethe^ s Faust us, in the original 
rhyme, by Alfred H. Hath, 5i. 

Prosa, by C. A. Bucbheini 

(Low's German Series), 3s. 6d. 

GOLDSMITH, 0., She Stoops 
to Conquer, by Austin Dobson, 
illust. by E. A. Abbey, Sk. 

\ %^^ ^^ Q\xQi«.^ Editioas. 



fn all Departments of Literature. 



II 



GOOCH, Fanny C, Face to 

"Face mt7i the Mexicans, 16s. 
GOODMAN, E. J., The Best 
Tour in Norway, new edit., 7s. 6d, 

GOODYEAK,W. H., Grammar 

of the Lotus, Ornament and Sun 
Worship, 63s. nett. 

GORDON, E. A., Clear Bound, 
Story from other Countries, 7s. 6d. 

J. E. H., Physical ^Treatise 

on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd 
ed. 2 Yols. 42s. 

School Electricity ) 6$, 

Mrs. J. E. H., Decorative 



Electricity, illnst. 12s. ; n. ed. 6s. 

Eunice Anscombe, 7s. 6d. 



GOUFFE, CooJceryBook,lOs. ed. 
GOUGH, E. J. See Preacheis. 
Gounod, Life and Worlcs, lOs.Qd, 
GOWEE, Lord Ronald. See 

Great Artists. 
GRAESSI, Italian Dictionary, 

3s. 6d. ; roan, 5s. 
Grant, General, Memoirs, 6s. 

Great Artists, Illustrated Bio- 
graphies, 2s. Gd. per vol. except 
where the price is given. 

Barbizon School, 2 vols. 

Clande le Lorrain. 

Correggio, 2s. 

Cox and De Wint. 

George Crnikshank. 

Delia Bobbia and Cellini, 2s. 

Albrecht Diirer. 

Figure Painters of Holland. By 
Lord BoDald Gowor. 

Fra Angelico, Masaccio, &c. 

Fra Bartolommeo ; Leader Scott. 

Gainsborough and Constable. 

Ghiberti and Donatello, by Leader 
Scott, 2s. 6d. 

Giotto, by H. Quilter ; 4to, 15s. 

Hogarth, by Austin Dobson. 

Hans Holbein. 

Landscape Painters of Holland. 

Landseer, by P. G. Stephens. 

Leonardo da Vinci, by J F. Eiobier. 



Great Artists— continued. 
Little Masters of Germany, by 
W. B. Scott ; id. de luxe, 10s. 6i. 
Mantegna and Francia. 
Meissonier, 2s. 
Michelangelo. 
Mulready. 

Murillo, by Ellen E. Minor, 2s. 
Overbeok, by J. B. Atkinson. 
Baphael, by K. D'Anyers. 
Bembrandt, by J. W. Mollett. 
Beynolds, by P. S. Pulling. 
Bomney and Lawrence, 2s. 
Bubens, by Kett. 
Tintoretto, by Osier. 
Titian, by Heath. 
Turner, by Monkhouse. 
Vandyck and Hals, by P. B. Head. 
Velasquez, by Edwin Stowe. 
Vernet & Delarocho. 
Watteau, by Mollett, 2s. 
Wilkie, by Mollett. 

Great Musicians, biographies, 
edited by F. Hueffer, 3s. each : — 

Bach. Mozart. 

Beethoyen. Purcell. 

Cherubini. Hossini. 

English Church Schubert. 
Composers. Schumann. 

Handel. Bichard Wagner. 

Haydn. Weber. 

Mendelssohn. 

GRTEB, German Dictionary, n. 
ed. 2 vols., fine paper, cloth, 21s. 

'* GRINGO," Land of the 

.Aztecs ^8 

GROHMANN, Camps in the 

RocJcies, 12s. Qd. 

GROVES. See Low's Std. Bks. 
GUILL6. Instruction and 

Amusements of the Blind, ill., 58. 

GUIZOT, History of England, 
illust. 3 vols, re-issuo, 10s. 6d. ea. 

History of France, illust. 

ro-iesne, 8 vols. 10s. Bd. each. 
Abridged by G. Ma8Son,5A 



GUNN, E, S,, R(wv.a-a^^ ^^ 



12 



A Select List of Books 



GUYON, Madame, Life, G«. 
IIADLEY, J., Rovian Law, 

78. 6d, 

HALE, lIoiD to Tie Salmon' 

Flies, Us. ed. 

HALFORD, F. M., Dnj Fly- 

fishing, n. cd. 25s. nett. 

Floaiiyig Flies^ \os, 

HALL, IIow fo Live Long, ^s. 
HALSEr, F. A., Slide Valve 

Uears^ Ss. 6d. 

HAMILTON. See English 

Fhilosophors. 
E. Fly -fishing for Salmon, 

6s. ; large paper, 10s. 6<Z. 

Rive7'8ide Naturalid, lis. 

J.A.,MounlainPath,38, 6d. 



HANCOCK, H , Mechanics, 58. 
HANDEL See G. Musicians. 
HANDS, T., Numerical Exei^- 

cises in Chemistry, 2s. 6d. 

Handy Guide to Dry-fly Fishing, 

by Cotswold Isya, new ed., Is. 
Handy Guide Book to Japanese 

Islands, fis. 6(2. 

HARKUT. See Low's Stand. 

Novels. 
HARRIS, J., Evening Tales, 65. 
W. B., Land of an 

African Sultan, 10s. 6rf., 5s., and 
2s. 6d. 

HARRISON, Mary, Modern 

Cookery, 6s. and 3s. 6d. 
SMlful Cook, n. ed. 3s. 6d. 

W., London Houses, lUust. 

n. edit., 2s. 6d. 

Memor. Paris Houses, 6*. 



HATTON. See Low's Standard 
Novels. 

HAWEIS, H.R.,iBroaJ Church, 
6s. 

Poets in the Pulpit, new 
edit. 6s. ; also 8s. 6(2. 

Mt8., Housekeeping, 2s, 6d, 
-Beautiful Houses^ n. ed.\«. 



HAYDN. See Great Musicians. 
HAZLITT. See Bayard Ser. 
HEAD, Percy R. See Illus. 

Text Books and Great Artists. 

HEARN, L., Youma, f>s. 
HEATH, Gertrddb, Tell us 

Why, 2s. 6c2. 

HKGINBOTHAM, Stockport, 

I., II., III.. IV., v., lOs. 6(2. each. 

HELDMANN, B. See Low's 
Standard Books for Boys. 

HENTY, G. A. See Low's 
Standard Books for Boys. 

'Richmond, Australiana, 5s. 

HERNDON, W. H., Life of A. 

Lincoln, 2 vols. 128. 
HERRICK, R., Poetry Edited 

bv Austin Dohson, illust. by E. A. 
Abbey, 42s. 

HERVEY, Gen., Records oj 
Crime, Thujgce, ^c, 2 vols., 30.<. 

HICKS, C. S., Our Boys, and 

what to do with l^hem ; Merchant 
Service, 5s. 

Yachts, Boats, and Canoes, 

Design and Construction, 10s. 6d. 

HILL, G. B., Footsteps of John- 
son, 63s. ; Edition de luxe, 147s. 

Katharine St., Gram- 
mar of Palmistry, new ed., 1*. 

HINMAN, R., Eclectic Physt- 
cal Geography, 5s. 

Hints on proving Wills toithout 
Professional Assistance, n. ed. Is. 

Historic Bindings in the Bod' 
leian Library, many plates, 
94s. 6J., 84s., 52s. 6d. and 42s. 

HODDER, E., His/or]/ of 
South Australia, 2 vols., 24s. 

HOEY, Mrs. Cashel. See 

Low's Standard Novels. 
HOFFER, Caoutchouc ^ Gutta 

Percha, by W. T. Brannt, 12s. 6d. 

HOFFMAN, C, Paper Making, 



In all Departments of Literature. 



13 



HOGARTH. See Gr. Artists, 

and Dobson, Austin. 

HOLBEIN. See Great Artists. 
HOLDER, Charles F., Ivory 

King, 8s. 6d, ; new ed. 3.?. 6d, 

Living Lights , n. ed. 3s. 6^. 

HOLLINGSHEAD, J., Mi/ 

Life Time^ 2 vols., 2 1 8. 

HOLMAN, T., Life in tlie 

Royal Navy, I5. 

Salt Yarns, new ed., I5. 

HOLMES, 0. Wendell, Before 

the Curfew J 5s, 
Guardian Angel, 2«. and 

2s. 6(Z. 
■^— Over the Tea Cups, 6s, 

Iron Gate, Sc, Poems, Gs. 

Last Leaf, holidsiy vol., 42«. 

Mechanism in Thought 



and Morals, Is. 6d, 

Mortal Antipathy y 8s. 6<^., 



2s. and Is. 

Our Sundred Days in 



Europe, new edit. Gs., 3s. 6d., and 
2s. 6(2., large paper, 15s. 

— Poetical Works, new edit., 
2 vols. 10s. 6d. 

— Works, prose, 10 vols. ; 
poetry, 3 vols. ; 13 vols. 84s. 

See also Low's Standard 



Novels and Rose Library. 
Homer, Iliad, translated by A. 
Way, vol. I., 9s. ; IL, 9». ; Odys- 
sey, in English verse, 78. 6d. 

Horace in Latin, with Smart's 

literal translation , 2s. 6d. ; trans- 
lation only. Is. 6(2. 

HOSMER, J., German Litera- 

ture, a short history, 7s. Qd. 
How and where to Fish in 
Irelandf by Hi- Regan, 8s. 6d. 

HOWARD, Blanche W., Tony 

the Maid, 3s. 6^. 

See also Low's Standard 
Novels. 



HO WELLS, W.D. Undiscovered 

Country, 3s. 6(Z. and Is. 

HO WORTH, Sir H.H., Glacial 

Nightmare ^ the Flood, 2 vols., 30s. 

Mammoth and the Flood, 

18s. 
HUEFFER. F. See Great 

Masioians. 

HUGHES, Hugh Brioe. See 

Preachers. 

W., Dark Africa, 2s. 

HUGO'S Notre Dame, 10s. Gd. 

HUME, Fergus, Creature of 

the Night, Is. See also Low's 
Standard Novels and Is. Novels. 

HUMFREY, Marian, Obstetric 

Nursing, 2 vols., 3s. 6(2. each. 
Humorous Art at the Naval 

Exhibition, Is. 

HUMPHREYS, Jennet, Some 

Little Britons in Brittany, 2s. 6d. 

HUNTINGDON, The Squire's 

Nieces, 2s. Gd. (Playtime Library.) 

HYDE, A Hundred Tears by 
Post, Jubilee Retrospect, Is. 

HYNE, G. J., Sandy Car- 

vnichaelf 6s., 3s. 6d., and 28. 6d. 

Hymnal Companion to the 
Booh of Common Prayer, separate 
lists gratis. 

Illustrated Text-Books of Art- 
Edxication, edit, by E. J. Poynter, 
R.A., 5s. each. 

Architecture, Classic and Early 
Christian, by Smith and Slater. 

Architecture, Gothic and Renais- 
sance, by T. Roger Smith. 

German, Flemish, and Datch 
Painting. 

Painting, Classic and Italian, by 
Head, &c. 

Painting, English and American. 

Sculpture, modern ; Leader Scott. 

Sculpture, by G. Redford. 

Spanish and French artists; Smith. 

Water Colour Painting, by Red- 



H 



A Select List of Books 



INDERWICK, F, A., Inter- 

rcgnum, IO5. 6d. 
Pruoner of War, 5«. 

King Edward and Neit 

Winchclsea^ 10a. 6d. 

Sidelights on the Stuarts^ 



new edit.. 7s. 6d, 

I NGELO W, Jban. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 

INGLIS, Hon. JA'hiESfOurNeto 

Zealand Cousins, 6s. 
Sport and Work on the 

Nepaul Frontier t 21s. 

Tent Life in Tiger Land, 



with colonred plates, ISs. 
IRVING, W., Litlle Britain, 

10s. fid. and 6s. 

JACKSON, John, Compendium, 

Is. 
New Style Vertical Writing 

Cop^-BooJ(8t 1 — 15, 2d. each. 
Neto Code Copy- Books, 



25 Nos. 2d. each. 

Shorthand of Arithmetic, 



Compnnionto Arithmetic8.1#. 6d. 
Tlieory and Practice of 



Handwriting, with diagrftms, 5s. 
JALKSON, Lowis, Ten Cen- 

turies of European Progress, 38. 6d. 

JAMES, Croake, Law and 

Lawyers, new edit. 7s. 6(1. 

JAMES and MOLE^S French 

Dictionary, Ss. 6cZ. cloth ; roan, 5s. 

JAMES, German Dictionary, 
3s. 6d. cloth ; roan, 5s. 

JANVIER, Aztec Treasure 
House, See also Low's Standard 
Books. 

Japanese Books, untearable. 

1. Rat's Plaint, hy Little, 5s. 

2. Smith, Children's Japan, 3s. 6d. 

3. Bramhall, Niponese Rhymes, 5s. 

4. Princess Splendor, fairy tale. 2s. 

JEFFERIES, Richard, Ama- 

ryllis at the Fair, 7«. 6d. 

See alsoLow^a Stan. Books, 



JEFFERSON, R. L., A Wheel 

to Moscow, 2f . 6d, 
JEPHSON, A. J. M., Emin 

Pasha relief expedition, 21s. 
Stories told in an African 

Forest, 8s. 6d. 

JOHNSTON, Bi.E.,The Congo, 

from its Mouth to B6l6b6, 21s. and 
2s. 6<L 

JOHNSTON-LAVIS, H. J., 

South Italian Volcanoes, 15s. 

JOHNSTONE, D. L., Land of 

the AJountain Kingdom, 2s. 6d. 
JOINVILLE. See Bayard Ser, 

JONES, Rev. J. M. See 

Preachers. 
JULIEN, F., Canversational 

French Reader, 2s, Qd, 
English Student's French 

Examine^, 2s. 
First Lessons in Conversa- 



tional French Qrammar, n. ed. Is. 
— French at Home and at 



School, Book I. accidence, 25. ;' 
key, 8s. 

Petites Lemons de Conver- 



sation et de OrammiMire, n. ed. 85. 
Petites Legons, with 

phrases, 8s. 6d, 
Phrases of Daily Use, 

separately, 6c7. 

KARR, H. W. Seton, Shores 

and Alps of Alaska, 16s. 
Keene (0.), Life, by Layard, 

245.; l.p., 63s. nett; n. ed., 125. 6i. 

KENNEDY, E. B., Blacks and 

Bushrangers, bs.,Ss. 6(i.«and2s.6d. 

Ouf of the Groove, 6$. 

KERSHAW, S. W., Protest 

ants from France in their English 
Homfiy 6#. 

KILNER, E. A., Four WeUh 

Counties, 5s. 

. KINGSLEY, R. G., Children 

\ oj WeslmvtvsUt AV>y^«^^^«« 



In all Departments of Literature. 



15 



KINGSTON, W. H. G. See 

Lov'a Stanaard Books. 

KIRKALDY, W. G., Daoii 

K<rkaldy's Mcnha-nicai TesHng.Sii. 

KNIGHT, E. v., Cruise of the 

Fahon, 7>. Gd. ; new edit. 3i. SJ. 

KNOX, T. W., Bo^ Travellert 

with B. M. Stonley, new edit. 5t. 

■ John Boyd' 1 Adventv,res,fis. 

KBUMMACHER, Dictionary 

Everyday German, 5a. 

KUNHARDf, C, P., Small 
Taehts, new edit. 60k. 

Steam Yachts, 16,1. 

KWONG,E>i!/Ush FhToses, 31«. 

LABILLIERE, Federal Bri- 
tain, 6?. 

Lafayette, General, Life, 12s. 

lALANNE, Mchinff, lit. tid. 

LAMB, Chas., £««ays of Mia, 
with deiigna by C. 0. Murray, 6s. 

JLartdtcape Fainiert of Holland. 

Bee Qreat Artials. 

LANDSEER. See Gi-eat Artista. 
lANGE, P., Ficlurei of Nor- 

wav. 525. 6d. 
IjANIEK, S., Boy's Froissaii, 

It. Gd.t King AHhvr, 7$. 6J.,- 

Percy, 7i. e.d. 

IANSDKLUHkkrv, Through 

Siberia, 2 voIr., 30i. 
Russian Central Atia, 

2 vols. *2i. 

Throu'jh Central Afia, lis. 

■ Ckirtese Central Aina, 3 

voli., (nlly tllnstrflted. 36s. 
'LA'&l>EV,W.,SfJwolOoureeon 

Meal, Sth ed., oirtirely rGvised, 5s. 

lARNED, W. C, Churches 

and Castliis.Wi.ed. 

LAURENCE, Serobant, Auto- 

binr/raphy, 6s. 

LAURIE, A. Sgc Low's Stand. 

Books. 
LAWRENCE. See Ronmey 

in OibH ArtlBIB. 



the 



cd. 



LAYAED, Mr8., Weei Indies, 
2s. 6d. 

G.S., HisQolf Madne>f,\s. 

Sec niso Keene. 

LEA, H. C, Inquisition 

HiddU Ages. 3 roU., 423. 

LEANING, 3 .,SpeciJkalioii^,i> 
LEARED, A., Morocco, 

16s. 
LEECH, H. J., John Brigkfs 

Letters, bs. 

LEFFINGWELL, W. B, 

Shooting, 18s. 
■ Wild Fold SJwoli'iij, 

10s. (id. 

LEKROY, W., Dkak of Nor- 
wicET. SaePreacherBof tLnAge. 

LBIBDRAND, Dr., This Aye 
OiiTf, da. 

Leo XIII. Life, Us. 

Leonardo da Yinci. See Groat 
Artists. 

Literary Works, by J. P. 

Bichter, 2 toIs. 252s. 

LEVETT YEATa, S. S(.-e 

Loir's Standard Novels. 

LIEBER, Telearaphic Cipher, 

43< nett. 
Like unto Christ. See Gentle 

Life SerieB. 
Lincoln, Abraham, tnie story of 

a Krent lite, S vols., ISs. 

LITTLE, Abou. J., Yangt.-e 

OorgeB,T,.ei.,lQ». Sd. 

See also JapaiJese Book:". 

LITTLE, W. J. KNOX-. See 

Prencberd of tlie Age. 
Little Masters ofGffi'iiiany. Soo 

Great Artists. 
LODGE, Life of George Wath- 

ington, 13'. 
LOFTIE, W. J., Orient Line 

Quide, Zs. Gd. 
LONG, James, Farmer's Hand- 



i6 



A Select List of Books 



LONGFELLOW, Maidenhood, 

with colonred plates, 2^. 6d. 

Nuremberg^ photogravure 

illastrations, Sis. 6d. 

Song of Hiawatha, 21«. 



LOOMIS, E., Astronomy, 8s. 6(?. 
LORD, Mrs. Frewbn, Tales 

from Westminster Abbey, 2s. 6d, ; 
new edition, Is, 

Tales fro7n St, PauVs, Is, 

LORNE, Marquis op, Canada 

and Scotland, Is, 6d, 

See also Prime Ministers. 

Louis, Si, See Bayard Series. 

Low^s Chemical Lecture GJiarts, 

318. 6(2. 
French Readei^s, ed. by C. F. 

Clifton. I. 3(2., II. 3(2., 111.6(2. 
German Series, See 



Goethe, Meissner, Sandars, and 
Schiller. 

London Charities, annu- 



ally. Is. 6(2. ; sewed, 1«. 
— IllustratedGerm. Primer, \s. 
Infant Primers, I. illus. 



3(2. ; II. illns. 6(2. 

Pocket Encyclojxsdia, with 



plates, 3$. 6(2. ; roan, 4s. 6(2. 

Readers, Edited by John 



Gill, I., 9(2. ; II., 10(2. j III., Is. ; 
IV., Is. 3(2. J v.. Is. 4(2.; VI., 
Is. 6(2. 

Low* 8 Stand, Library of Travel 

and Adventure, 2s. 6(2. per vol. 

Ashe (R. P.), Two Kings of Uganda; 
also 3s. 6(2. 

Butler (Sir W. F.) The Great Lone 
Land ; A Becord of Travel and 
Adventnre in North and West 
America. 

Churchill (Lord R.), Men, Mines, 
and Aniinals in South Africa. 

Harris (W. B.), The Land of an 
African Saltan : Travels in Mo- 
rocco. 

HoImeB (Dr. O. W.), Our Hundred 
Vajra in Europe, 



Low's Stand. Library of Trcvel-^ 

continued, 
Johnston (H. H.), The Hirer Congo, 

from its Mouth to B6I(5b6. 
Knight (E. F.), Cruise of the Falcm : 

A Voyage to South America ii a 

Thirty-Ton Yacht; also 3s. 6(2. 
Spry (W. J. J.), The Cruise of thd 

Challenger ; also 7s. 6(2. 
Stanley (H. M.) How I Found Liv- 

ingstone ; also 3s. 6(2. 
Wingate (Major F. R.), Ten Years* 

Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp, 

1882-1892 ; also 6s. 
Other Volumes in preparation. 

Low's Standard Novels, Library 
Edition (except where priqe it 
stated), cr. 8vo., 6s.; also popular 
edition (marked with *), small 
post 8vo, 2s. 6(2. 

Baker, John Westacott, 3s. 6(2. 

Mark Tillotson. 

•Black (William) Adventures in 
Thule. 



#. 
*_ 



* 



- The Beautiful Wretch. 

- Daughter of Heth. 

- Donald Boss of Heimra. 

- Green Pastures & Piccadilly. 

The Handsome Humes. 

Highland Cousins. 

• In Far Lochaber. 

• In Silk Attire. 

- Judith Shakespeare. 

- Kilmeny. . 
-LadySilverdale's Sweetheart 

- Macleod of Dare. 

- Madcap Violet. 

- The Magic Ink. 

- Maid of Killeena. 

- New Prince Fortunatus. 

* The Penance of John Logan, 

• Princess of Thule. 

* Sabina Zembra. 

* Shaudon Bells. 

• Stand Fast, Craig Royston ! 

* Strange Adventures of a 

House Boat. 
* Strange Adventures of ft 

Phaeton. 
• Sunrise. 



4> 



In all Departments of Ltteratute, 



17 



*. 

«. 
*. 
*. 

4>. 



Low^$ Stand, Novels — continued, 
*Blaok (William) White Heather. 

♦ White Wings. 

• Wise Women of Inverness. 

Wolfenberg. 

* Yolande, 

♦Blackmore (R. D.) Alice Lorraine. 
• Christowell. 

— Clara Yaaghan. 

— Gradock Nowell. 

— Cripps the Carrier. 

— Erema, or My Father's Sin. 

— Kit and Kitty. 

— LornaTDoone. 

— Mary Anerley, 
Perlycross. 

• Springhaven. 

* Tommy Upmore. 

Bremont, Gentleman Digger. 

•Brown (Robert) Jack Abbott's 
Log. 

Bynner, Agues Sarriage, 

Begum's Daughter. 

Cable (G. W.) Bonaventure, 5s, 

John March, Southerner. 

Carmichael (H.), Rooted in Dis- 
honour. 

Catherwood (M. H.), Lady of Fort 
St. John. 

Coleridge (C. R.) English Squire. 

Craddock, Despot of Broomsedge. 

•Croker (Mrs. B. M.)Some One Else. 

♦Cumberland (Stuart) Vasty Deep. 

DeLeon^Under the Stars & Crescent. 

♦Edwards (Miss Betham) Half-way. 

Eggleston, Juggernaut. 

Emerson (P. H.), Son of the Fens. 

Eyre-Todd, Anne of Argyle. 

French Heiress in her own Chateau. 

Gilliat, Story of the Dragounades. 

Harkut, The Conspirator. 

*Hatton, Old House at Sandwich. 

* Three Recruits. 

Hicks (J.), Man from Oshkosh. 

♦Hoey(Mrs. Cashel)Golden Sorrow. 

Out of Court. 

Stern Chase. 

^Holmes (O. W.), Guardian Angel. 

• Over the Teacups. 

Howard (Blanche W.) Ojxjn Door. 

Hume (Fergus), Fever of Life. 

— Gates of Dawn. 



* 

«. 



lioio's stand. Novels — continued. 

Ingelow (Jean) Don John. 

John Jerome, 5s. 

Sarah de Berenger, 

Lathrop, Newport, 5s. 
Macalpine, A Man's Conscience. 
•MaoDonald (Geo.) Adela Cathcart. 

— Guild Court. 

— Mary Marston. 

— A Dish of Orts. 

— Stephen Archer, &o. 

• The Vicar's Daughter. 

• Weighed and Wanting. 

Macmaster, Our Pleasant Vices. 
Martin, Even Mine Own Familiar 

Friend. 
Musgrave (Mrs.) Miriam. 
*01iphant, Innocent. 
Osboru, Spell of Ashtaroth, 5s. 
Penderel (R.) Wilfred Waide. 
Pendleton, Sons of Ham, 5s. 
Prince Maskiloff. 
Raife (R.), Sheik's White Slave. 
•Riddell (Mrs.) Agaric Spenceley. 

* Daisies and Buttercups. 

* Senior Partner. 

Struggle for Fame. 

♦Russell (W. Clark) Betwixt the 
Forelands. 

The Emigrant Ship, 

* Frozen Pirate. 

— Jack's Courtship. 

— John Holds worth. 

— Little Loo. 

— The Lady Maud. 

— Mrs. Dines* Jewels. 

— My Watch Below. 

* An Ocean Free Lance. 

* A Sailor's Sweetheart. 

* The Sea Queen. 

* A Strange Voyage. 

* Wreck of the Grosvenor, 

Ryce, Rector of Amesty. 
Steunrt, In the Day of Battle. 

Kilgroom. 

Stockton (P. R.) Ardis Claverden. 

Bee-man of Orn, 5s. 

* Dusantesand Mrs. Leeks and 

Mrs. Aleshinci 1 vol., 2s. Gd, and 

2s. only. 
Hundredth Man.. 



«. 

*, 

*. 

* 



i8 



A Select List of Books 



Low's Stand, Novels — corUinued, 

Stoker (Bram) Snake's Pass. 
Stowe (Mrs.) Poganuo People. 
Tbanefc (O.), Stories of a Western 

Town. 
Thomas, House on the Scar. 
Thomson (Joseph) Ulii. 
Tourgoe, Murvale Eastman. 
Tyfcler (S.) Duchess Frances. 
♦Vane, From the Dead. 

Polish Conspiracy. 

•Walford (Mrs.), Her Great Idea. 
Warner, Lit tie J oumey in the World . 
Wilcox, Senora Villena. 
Wool son (Constance F.) Anne. 

East Aiigels. 

For the Major, 5» 

Jupiter Lights. 

Yeats (S. L.), Honour of Sayelli. 

Low^s Shilling Novels, 

Edwards, Dream of Millions. 
Emerson, East Coast Yarns. 

Signer Lippo. 

Evans, Upper "ftn. 
Fordo, Subaltern, &c. 

Trotter : a Poona Mystery. 

Hewitt, Oriel Penhaligon. 
Holman, Life in the Royal Navy. 

Salt Yarns. 

Hume (F.), Creature of the Night. 

Chinese Jar. 

Ignotus ; Visitors* Book. 
Layard, His Golf Madness. 
Married by Proxy. 
Bux, Roughing it after Gold. 

Through the Mill. 

Vane, Lynn's Court Mystery. 
Vesper, Bobby, a Story. 

Low^s Standard Books for Boys^ 

with numerous illastrations, 
2s. 6cZ. each ; gilt edges, 35. G(i. 

Ainslie, Priceless Orchid. 

Biart (Lucien) Young Naturalist. 

My Rambles in the New World. 

Boussenard, Crusoes of Guiana. 

Gold Seekers, a sequel. 

Butler (Col. Sir Wm.) Red Cloud. 
Cahun (Leon) Captain Mago. 
Blue Banner. 



Low*s Stand, Boohs for Boys — 
continued, 

Oollingwood,UndertheMeteorFlag 

— : — Voyage of the Aurora, 

Cozzens(S.W.) Marvellous Country. 

Dodge (Mrs.) Hans Brinker. 

Da Ohaillu (Paul) Gorilla Conntrr. 

— Wild Life on the Equator. 

Erckmann-Chatrian,Bro8.Rant zau. 

Evelyn, Inca Queen. 

Fenn(G.Manville) Oiitothe Wilds. 

Silver Canon. 

The Black Bar. 

Groves (Percy ) Charmouth Grange. 

Heldmann (B.) Leander Mutiny. 

Henty (G. A.) Cornet of Horso. 

Jack Archer. 

Winning his Spurs. 

Hyne, Sandy Carmichael. 

Janvier, Aztec Treasure Honso. 

Jefferies (Richard) Be vis, Story of 
a Boy. 

Johnstone, Mountain Kingdom. 

Kennedy, Blacks and Bushrangers. 

Kingston (W. H. G.) Ben Burton. 

Captain Mugford. 

Dick Cheveley. 

Heir of Kilfinnan. 

Snowshoes and Canoes* 

Two Supercargoes. 

With Axe and Rifle. 

Laurie (A.) Axel Ebersen. 

Conquest of the Moon. 

New York to Brest. 

Secret of the Magian. 

MacGregor (John) Rob Roy Canoe. 

Rob Roy in the Baltic. 

Yawl Rob Roy, 

Maclean, Maid of the Golden Age, 

Mael, P., Under the Sea to the 
Pole. 

Malan (A. N.) Cobbler of Corni- 
keranium. 

Meunier, Great Hunting Grounds. 

Muller, Noble Words and Deeds. 

Norway (G.) How Martin Drake 
found his Father. 

Perelaer, The Three Deserters. 

Reed (Talbot Baines) Roger Ingle- 
ton, Minor. 
Sir Lndar. 



OSliere, Exploits of the Doctor. \ 'B.^v^^^wjT^^'^^'Gtvtt.^l,^ Adventnreg. 



In all Departments of Literature. 



19 



Low^s Stand, Books for Boys — 

continued, 
Boasselot (Louis) Drummer-boj. 
— =— King of the Tigers. 

Serpent Charmer. 

Son of the Constable. 

Eussell (W. Clark) Frozen Pirate. 
Stanley, My Kalulu. 
Tregance, Louis, in Kew Guinea. 
Van Hare, Life of a Showman. 
Verne, Adrift in the PaciBo. 
Caesar Cascabel. 

— Family without a Name. 

— Purchase of the North Pole. 
Winder (F. H.) Lost in Africa. 

Lo?o*8 Standard Series of Girls'^ 
Bools by popular writers, cloth 
gilt, 2^. ; gilt edges, Zs, 6d, each. 

Alcott (L. M.) A Rose in Bloom. 

An Old- Fashioned Girl. 

Aunt Jo*s Scrap Bag. 

Eight Cousins, illust. 

Jack and Jill. 

Jimmy's Cruise. 

Little Men. 

Little Women & L.Wo. Wedded 

Lulu's Library, illnst. 

Kecolleotions of Childhood. 

Shawl Straps. 

Silver Pitchers. 

Spinning-Wheel Stories. 

Under the Lilacs, illust. 

Work and Beginning Again, ill. 

Aldon (W. L.) Jimmy BrowD,illu8t. 

Trying to Find Europe. 

Buuyan, Pilgrim's Progress, 2«. 
De Witt (Madame) An Only Sister. 
Franc (Maud J.), Stories, 28. 6d. 

edition, see page 9. 
Holm (Saxe) Draxy Miller's Dowry. 
Bobinson (Phil) Indian Garden. 

— Under the Punkah. 

Boe (E. P.) Nature's Serial Story. 
Saintine, Picciola. 
Samuels, Forecastle to Cabin, illast. 
Sandeau (Jules) Seagull Bock. 
Stowe (Mrs.) Dred. 

Ghost in the Mill, &o. 

Minister's Wooing. 

My Wife and L 

— We and our Neighbours. 



Low*8 Standard S&i^ies of Books 

for QirU — continued, 
Tooley (Mrs.) Harriet B. Stowe. 
Warner, In the Wilderness. 

My Summer in a Garden. 

Whitney (Mrs.) Leslie Goldthwaite. 
— — Faith Gartney's Girlhood. 

The Gay worthys. 

Hitherto. 

Beal Folks. 

We Girla. 

The Other Girls : a SequeL 

*^* A new Uluitrated list of hooJcs 
for hoys and girlSf with portraits, 
sent post free on appli^iation. 

LOWELL, J. R, Among my 

Books, I. and IL, 78. 6<Z. each. 
— Vision of Sir Launfal, 

ill us. S3s. 
LUMMIS, C. F., Tramp, Ohio 

to Galifornia, Ss, 

Land of Poco Tiempo 

(New Mexico), lOs. 6(i., illust. 

MACDONALD, D., Oceania fis, 

Sweet Scented Flowers, 58, 

George. See Low's Stand. 

Novels. 

Sir John A., Life, IQs, 



MACGOUN, Commercial Cor- 

respondencSf 5«. 

M ACGREGOR, J., Boh Boy in 

the Balticj n. ed. 3«. 6d. and 2s. 6d. 

Boh Boy Canoe, new edit.^ 

38. 6d. and 2s. (yd. 

Yawl Bob Boy, new edit, 



\ 



Ss. 6i. and 2s. Gd. 

MACKENNA, Brave Men in 

Action, lOs. (yd, 

MACKENZIE, Sir Morell, 

Fatal Illness of Frederick the 

NohUy 2s. Gd, 

Essays, 7s, 6d, 

MACKINNON and SHAD- 

BOLT, S, African Campaign, bOs, 
MACLAREN,A. See Preachers. 

MACLEAN, H. E. See L^h^'^. 



20 



A Select List of Books 



MACMASTER. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 

I^IACMULLEN, J. M., Uisiory 

0/ Oanadia,^ 3rd ed., 2 vols., 25s. 

MACMURDO, E., Hidory of 

Portugal, 3 vols., 21s. each. 

MAEL, Pierre, Under the Sea 

to the North FoUy 5s. and 2s. 6d. 

MAHAN, Capt. A. T., Admiral 

Farragut, 6». 
Influence of Sea Power 

on the French Revolutionf 2 vols. 
(British naval history), 30s. 

Sea Power in History y 18*. 



MAIN, Mrs,, My Home in the 

Alps, 3s. 6d. 

Hints on Snow Photo^ 

graphy. Is. 6d. 

See also Burnaby, Mrs. 



MAL AN. SeeLow'sStand.Books 

C. F. DB M., Eric and- 

Connie* s Cruise, 5s. 

Manchester Library, Reprints 
of Classics, per To\.,6d.; sewed, 
3d. List on application. 

MANLEY, Notes on Fish and 

Fishing, 6s. 

MANTEGNA and FRANCIA. 
See Great Artists. 

MARBURY, Favourite Flies, 

with coloured plates,&c.,24s.nett. 

MARCH, F. A., Comparative 

AnglO'Saxon Grammar, 12s. 
Anglo-Saxon Reader, 7s, Gd, 

MARKHAM, Adm., Naval 

Career during the old vjar, 14s. 
— Clements R., War Be- 
tween Peru and Chili, 10s. 6d. 

MARSH, A. E. W., Holiday 

in Madeira, 5s. 

■ G. P., Lectures on the 

English Language, 18s. 

Origin and History of tJie 



MARSHALL, W. GT., TJirovgh 

America^ new edit. 7s. 6d. 

MARSTON, E., How Stanley 

wrote " In Darkest Africa,** Is. 

See also Amateur Angler, 

Frank's Ranche, and Fresh 
Woods. 

R. B., Walton and Some 



Earlier Angling Writers, 4s. 6d. 

See also Walton's ^* Com- 



pleat Angler." 

Westland, Eminent 



English Lar^guage, 18s. 



Recent Actors, n. ed., 6s. 
MARTIN, J. W., Float Fish- 
ing and Spinning, new edit. 2s. 

MATHESON, Annie, Love's 

Music, and other lyrics, 3s. 6d, 

MATTHEWS, J. W., Incwadi 

Yami, 20 Tears in S. Africa, 14s. 

MAUCHLINE, Robert, Mine 

Foreman* s ffandhook, 21s. 

MAURY, M F., Life, Us. 6d. 

MAURY, M. F., Physical Geo- 
graphy and Meteorology of the 
Sea, new ed. 6s, 

MAURY, Genl. H., Recollec- 
tions, 7s. 6d. 
MEISSNER, A. L., Children's 

Own German Booh (Low's Series), 
Is. 6d, 

— ^ First German Reader 

(Low's Series), Is. 6d, 
Second German Readei 

(Low's Series), Is. 6d. 

MEISSONIER. See Great 

Artists. 
MELBOURNE, Lord. See 

Prime Ministers. 

MELIO, G. L., Swedish Drill, 
entirely new edition, 2s. 6d, 

Member for WrottenhorougJi, 
by Arthur a'Bbckett, 3s. 6d. 

Men of Achievement, Ss, 6d, each. 
Noah Brooks, Statesm^en, 
Gen. A. W. Greeley, Explorers. 
Philip G. Hubert, inventors, 
\ \t . O « ^\A^<^»x^^KL«tv of Business. 



In all Departments of Literature. 



21 



MENDELSSOHN. family, 

1729-1847, Letters and Journals, 
new edit., 2 vols., 305. 

See also Great Musicians. 

MERIWETHER, Lee, Medu 

terraneaUf new ed. , 6s. 

MERRYLEES, J., Carlsbad, 
new edition, 3s. 6(2. 

MERRIFIELD, J., Nautical 

Astronomy, 7s. 6rf. 

MESNEY,W., Tungking.Zs. 6^7. 
Metal Workers* Recipes and 

Processes, by W. T. Brannt, 12s. 6(Z. 

MEUNIER, V. See Low's 

Standard Books. 
Michelangelo, See Great Artists. 
MIJATOVICH, C., Constant 

iine, 7s. Qd, 
MILL, James. See English 

Philosophers. 

MILLS, J., Alternative Ohem- 
istry, answers to the ordinary 
coarse, Is. 

— Alternative Elementary 

Chemistry t Is. 6d. ; answers, Is. 

J,, Chemistry for 



students^ 3s. 6d, 

MILNE, J., AND BURTON, 

Volcanoes of JapaUf collotypes by 
Ogawa, part i., 21s. nett. 
MITCHELL, D.G.(Ik. Marvel) 

JSnglish Lands, Letters and Kings, 
2 vols. 6s. each. 

WritingSy new edit, per 

vol. 5s. 

MITFORD, J., Letters, 3s. 6d. 
Miss, Our Village, illus. 5s, 

MODY, Mrs., German Litera- 
ture, ontlines, Is. 

MOFFATT, W., Land and 

MOINET. See Preachers. 
MOLLETT. See Great Artists. 
MOLONEY, J. A., With Cap- 

tain Stairs to Katanga, 8s. 6d, 

MONKHOUSE. See G. Artists. 



Montaigne's Essays, revised by 

J. Hain Friswell, 2s. 6d. 

MONTBARD (G.), A7nong the 

Moors, 16s. ; ed. de Luxe, 63s. 

M 00 re, J.M., New Zealand for 

Emigrant, Invalid, and Tourist, 5s. 

MORLEY, Henry, English 
Literature in the Reign of Victoria, 
2s. 6d. 

MORSE, E. S,, Japanese HomeSf 

new edit. 10s. 6d. 

MORTEN, H., Hospital Life, 1 s. 
— Illnesses ^ Accidents, 2s, 6d. 
& GETHEN, Tales of the 

Children*s Ward, 3s. 6d, 

MORTIMER, J., Chess Players 

Pocket-Book, new edit. Is. 

MOSS, F. J., Great South Sea, 

Atolls and Islands, 8s. Gd, 

MOTTI, PiETRo, Elementary 

Russian Grammar, 2s. Gd, 
Russian Conversation 

Grammar, 5*. ; Key, 2s. 

MOULE, H.C.G. SeePreachers. 
MOUTON, E., Adventures of a 
Breton Boy, 5s. 

MOXLY, West India Sana- 

toriuTii ; Barbados, 3s. Gd, 
MOZART. See Gr. Musicians. 
MULERTT, H., Gold Fish 

Culture, 5s. 

MULLER,E. See Low's Stand- 

ard Books. 
MULLIN, J. P., Moulding and 
Pattern Making, 12s. Gd, 

MULREADY. See Gt. Artists. 
MURDOCH, Ayame San, a Ja- 
panese Romance, 30s. nett. 
MURILLO. See Great Artists. 
MURPHY, Beyond the Ice, 

from Farleigh's Diary, 3s. Gd, 

MUSGRAVE, Mrs. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 
My Comforter, ifc, Religious 

Poems, 2s. Gd, 

Napoleon I. ^^i.Ni.^w^^t^'^'^^^'®^ 



22 



A Select List of Books 



Napoleon I, , Decline and Fall of. 
See WoUeley. 

NELSON, WoLFRED, Panama, 

the Cana], Ac, 6#. 
NeUon'sWords andDeeds, Ss, Od, 

NETHERCOTE, Pytchley 

Hunt, Ss. 6d. 

New Zealand, chromos, by Bar- 
rand, text by Travers, 168*. 
NICHOLS, W. L., Quanlochs, 

6s. ; large paper, lOj. 6<2. 
NICOLS, A., Salmonidce, 5s, 

Nineteefiith Century , a Montlily 
Review, 2«. 6(1. per No. 

NISBET, Hume, Life and 

Nature Studies, illustrated, Gs, 

NIVEN,R.,i47iyZer*« Lexiconfis, 
NORMAN, C. B., Corsairs of 

France^ 18s. 

NORMAN, J. H., Monetary 

Systems of the World, 10s. (jd. 
Ready Reckoner of Foreign 

and Colonial Exchanges, $8. 6d. 
NORWAY, 50 photogravures 

by Paul Lange, text by E. J. 

Goodman, 52s. 6d. nett. 

S., Hmo Martin Brakes 

55. and 2s. 6d. 

NOTTAGE, C. G., In Search 

of a Climate, illust. 25s. 
NtigenVs French Dictionary, 35. 

O'BRIEN, Fifty Years of Con- 
cession to Ireland, 2 vols. 32s. 

OGAWA, Open-Air Life in 
Japan, 15s. nett ; Out of doors Life 
in Japan, 1 2s. nett. 

OGDEN, J., Fly-tying, 2s. 6d. 

Ohrwalder*s Ten Yeari Cap- 
timty ; MahdVs Camp, 6s. & 2s. 6d, 

Orient Line Guide, fourth edit, 
by W. J. Loftie, 3s. 6d. 

ORTOLI, Evening Tales, done 
into English by J. C. Harris, 6s. 

OBVIS, C. F., Fly Fishing, 
With coloured plates, 12s. 6d. 



OSBORN, H. S., ProspeetoT^s 
Guide, 8s. 6rf. 

OTTO, E., French and Oerman 
Grammars, ^c. List on applica- 
tion. 

Our Little Ones in Heaven, 5s, 
Out of Doors Life in Japan, 

Barton's photos. See Ogawa. 

Out of School at Eton, 2s, 6d. 
VERBECK. See Great Artists. 
OWEN, Marine Insurance, 15*. 

PAGE, T. N., Marse Chan, 
illnst. 6s. 

Meh Lady, a Story of Old 

Virginian Life, illus. 65. 

PALAZ, A., Industrial Photo- 
metry, 12s. 6d. 

PALGRAVE, R. F. D. Chair- 

man's Har^book, 12th edit. 2s. 
'■ Oliver Cromwell, lOs, 6d. 

PALLISER, Mrs. Bury, China 

Collector's Companion, 6s. 

History of Lace, 11. ed. 21.^. 

FANTO^, Homes of Taste,28,6d 
PARKE, T. H., E^nin Pasha 

Relief Expedition, 21s. 
Health in Africa, hs. 

PARKER, E. H., Cliineie Ac- 
count of the Opium War, Is. 6d. 

J., Thermo Dynamics, 

10s. 6d. 

PARKS, Leighton, Winning 
of the Soul, ^c, sermons, 3s. 6d. 

Parliamentary Pictures and 
Personalities (from the Gra>phic), 
illnst., 5s. ; ed. de laxe, 21s. nett. 

PATTERSON, CAPT., Navi- 

gator's PocTcet Booh, 5s. 

PEACH, -^?iwaZa of Swainswick, 

near Bath, 10s. 6^. 
Peel, See Prime Ministers. 

PELLESCHF, G., Gran CJiaco 

0/ the Argentine Republic, Ss. 6d, 



hi all Departments of Literature. 



23 



PENDLETON, L. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 
PENNELL, FuUng Tackle, 2«. 

— Sporting Fishy \bs. & 30a. 
Penny Postage Jubilee^ 1«. 
Pensions for all at Sixty , 6c/. 

PERL, H., Venice, 28s. 

PHELPS, B. S., Struggle for 

Immortality y 65. 

Samuel, Ldfe, by W. M. 

Phelps & Forbes-Eobertson, \2s. 

PHILBRICK, F. A., and 

WESTOBY, Post and Telegraph 
Stampst 10s. 6(2. 

PIIILLIMORE, C. M., Italian 

Literature, new. edit. 85. 6d. 
See alsoGt. Artists, Fra An, 

PHILLIPS, L. P., Dictionary 

of Biographical Reference, n.e. 25s. 

— ^ E., How to Become a Jour- 

nalist^ 2.8. 6(2. 

W., Law of Imurance, 2 

▼oIb. 73s. 6(2. 
PHILPOT, H. J., Diahete;^, 5s. 

— Diet Tables, Is. each. 
PICKARD, S. F., Whittier's 

Life, 2 vols., 18s. 

PIERCE, Memoir of G. Sum- 
ner, 2 vols., 36s. 

Playtime Library, 2s. 6d, each. 

Charles, Where is Fairy Land ? 

Hamphrcys, Little Britons. 

Huntingdon, Squire's Nieoea. 

PLUNKETT (solid geometry) 

Orthographic Projection, 2s. 6(2. 

POE, E. A., Eaven, ill. by G. 

Dore, 63f. 
Poems of the Inner Life, 6s. 
Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin.ls. 6d. 
POPE, W. H., Fly Fuiher'8 

Register, 4s. 

— F. L., Electric Telegraph, 
12s. 6(2. 

PORCHER, A., Juvenile 
French Plays, with Notes, la. 



PORTER,NoAH, Memoir,Ss.6d. 

Portraits of Racehorses, 4 vols, 
126s. 

POSSELT, Structure of Fibres, 
Yarns and Fabrics, 63s. 

— Textile Design, illust. 28j. 

POTTER, F. ^.,WaXter Gaydon, 
5s. 

POYNTER. See Illustrated 

Text Books. 

Preachers of the Age, 3s. 6rf. ea. 

Living Theology, by His Grace the 

Archbishop of Canterbury. 
The Conquering Christ, bj Rev. A. 

Maclaren. 
Verhum Crucis, by the Bishop of 

Derry. 
Ethical Christianity, by Hugh P. 

Hnghes. 
Knowledge of God, by the Bishop 

of Wakefield. 
Light and Peace, by H. R. Reynolds. 
Journey of Life, by W. J. Knox- 

Little. 
Messages to the Multitude, by 

C. H. Spurgeon. 
Christ is All, by A. C. G. Monle,M.A. 
Plain Words on Great Themes, by 

J. O. Dykes. 
Children of God, by E. A. Stuart. 
Christ in the Centuries, by A. M. 

Fairbairn. 
Agonia Christi, by Dr. Lofroy. 
The Transfigured Sackcloth, by W. 

L. Watkinson. 
The Gospel of Work, by the Bishop 

of Winchester. 
Vision and Duty, by C. A. Berry. 
The Burning Bush; Sermons, by 

the Bishop of Ripon. 
Good Cheer of Jesus Christ, by C. 

Moinct, M.A. 
A Cup of Cold Water, by J. Morlais 

Jones. 
The Religion of the Son of Man, by 

E. J. Goagh, M.A. 

PRICE, Arctic Ocean to Tellcna 



24 



A Select List of Books 



Prime Ministers, a series of 
political biographies, edited by 
Stuart J. Keid, §5. 6(2. each. 

Earl of Beaoonsfield, bj J. Anthony 
Fronde, 

Viscount Melbourne, by Henry 
Dunckley ("Feraaj"). 

Sir Robert Peel, by Justin 
McCarthy. 

Viscount Palmer ston, by the Mar- 
quis of Lome. 

Lord John Bussell, by Stuart J. 
Beid. 

Eight Hon. W. B. Gladstone, by 
G. W. B. Eussell. 

Earl of Aberdeen, by Baron Stan- 
more. 

Marquis of Salisbury, by H. D. 
Traill. 

Earl of Derby, by G. Saintsbury, 

*^* An edition, limited to 250 copieSt 
medium 8vo, half vellum^f cloth 
sides, gilt top, 9 vols. il. is, nett» 

Prince Maskiloff. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 
Prince of Nursery Playmates, 

new edit. 2si. 6d. 
PRITT, T. K,^ North Country 

Flies, coloured plates, 10s, 6d, 
Publisher's Circular, weekly, 

lid, 
PurcelL See Great ^Musicians. 
PYLE, Howard, Rohin Hood, 

lOs, 6d. 
QUILTER, UATiRY,Giotto,Life, 

^c. 15s. See also Great Artists. 

RAFTER & BAKER, Sewage 

Disposal, 24s. 

RAIFE, R., Sheik's White 

Slave, Gs. 
RAPHAEL. See Great Artists. 
REDFORD,^ Sculpture. See 

Hlustrated Text-books. 

REDGRAVE, Century of Eng- 
lish Painters, new ed. , 7s. 6d. 

REED, T. B. See Low's St.Bks. 
BEID, Mayihk, Captaiii. Bee 

Low*s Stondard Books. 



REID,Stuart J. See Prime Min. 
Remarkable Bindings in British 

Museum ; 73s. 6</. and 63s. 

REMBRANDT. See Gr. Artists. 
REY NOLDS. See Gr. Artists. 
REMUSAT, MADAME DE, 

Memoirs, Is. 6(7, 

Henry R. See Preachers. 

RICHARDS, J. W., Aluminium, 

new edit. 21s. 

RICHTER, Italian Art in the 

National Oallery, 42s. 

See also Great Artists. 

RIDDELL, Mrs. J. H. See 

Low's Standard Novels. 
RIPON, Bp. op. See Preachers. 

RIVIERE, J., Recollections, 

3s. 6d, 
ROBERTS, Lord, Rise of 

Wellington, 8s. 6d. 

W., English Bookselling, 

earlier history, 3s. 6(2. 

ROBERTSON, Dr. Al., Era 

Paolo ^arpi, 68. 

Count Campello, 5s. 

ROBIDA, A., Toilette, coloured 
plates, 7#. 6<i.; new ed. 3s. 6d, 

ROBINSON, H. P., Works on 

Photography, Listonapplicatioo. 

ROBINSON, Phil., Noah's 

Ark, n. ed. 8s. 6d. 
Sinners ^ Saints, 10s. Gd.\ 

new ed. 8s. 6d. 

See also Low's Stan. Ser. 

Sbrj., Wealth and its 



Sources, 5s. 

J. R , Princely Chandos, 



illast., 12s. 6d, 

Last Earls of Barrymore^ 



12s. 6d. 

— ** Old Qr 7s, M, and 2 Is. 
" Romeo '' Coates, 7s, 6d. 



\ 



ROCKSTRO, History of Music, 

new ed. 14s. 



In all Departments of Literature. 



25 



ROE, E. P. See Low's St. Ser. 
ROLFE,Pow^m, n. ed., 7«. 6e?., 

with PhotoSi 148. 
ROMNE Y. See Great Artists. 

ROOPER, a., Thames and 

ROSE, J., Mechanical Draming 

Self -Taught, 16s. 
— Key to Engines^ 8«. Qd, 
Practical Machinist, new 

ed. 12s. ed, 

Steam Engines, Sis, 6d. 

Steam Boilers, 12 s. 6d, 



Rose Library. Per vol. Is,, 

UDless the price is given. 
Alcott (L. M.) Eight Cousins, 2s. 

Jack and Jill, 2s. 

Jimmy's cruise in the Pino. 

fore, 2s. ; cloth, 3s. 6<2. 

Little Women. 

Little Women Wedded ; Nos. 

4 and 5 in 1 vol. cloth, 3s. 6d. 

Little Men, 2». ; cl. gt.,3s. 6d, 

Old-fashioned Girls, 2s.j cloth, 

8s. 6(f. 

Bose in Bloom, 2s. ; cl. 8s. 6d. 

Silver Pitchers. 

■ ■ Under the Lilacs, 2s.; cl.8s.6(2. 

Work, 2 vols, in 1, cloth, 3s.6d. 

Stowe (Mrs.) Pearl of Orr's Island. 

Minister's Wooing. 

We and Our Neighbours, 2s. 

My Wife and I, 2s. 

Dred, 2s. ; ol. gt., 3s. 6^. 

Dodge (Mrs.) Hans Brinker, Is.; 

cloth, 5s. ; 3s. 6d, ; 2s. 6d. 
Holmes, Guardian Angel, cloth, 2s. 
Carleton (W.) City Ballads, 2 vols* 

in 1, cloth gilt, 2s. 6d, 

- — Legends, 2 vols, in 1, cloth 
gilt, 2s. ed, 

— Farm Ballads, 6d, and 9d. ; 3 
vols, in 1, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d, 

^- — Farm Festivals, 3 vols, in 1, 

cloth gilt, 8s. 6(2. 
— — Farm Legends, 8 vols, in 1, 

cloth gilt, 8s. 6d, 
Biart, Bemag^us' Clients, 2 vols. 
HowellSi Undiscovered Country, 



Rose Library — Continued, 

Clay (C. M.) Baby Rue. 

Story of Helen Troy. 

Whitney, Hitherto, 2 vols. 3s. Gd, 
Fawcett (E.) Gentleman of Leisure 
Butler, Nothing to Wear. 

ROSSETTI. See Wood. 
ROSSINI, Ac. See Great Mus. 
Rothschilds, by J. Reoves,7«. Gd, 
Roughing it after Gold, by Rux, 

new edit. Is. 

ROUSSELET. See Low's 

Standard Books. 
Royal Naval Exhibition, illus. liJ. 
RUBENS. See Great Artists. 
RUSSELL, Q.W,E,,Gladstone, 

See Prime Ministers. 

H., Ruin of Soudan, 21 s, 

W. Clark, Mrs. Dines' 

Jewelsy cloth, 2s. Gd., boards, 2s. 
Nelson^ s Words and Deeds, 

3s. 6d. 

Sailor's Language, 3s. 6d, 

See also Low's Standard 
Novels. 

W. Howard, Prince of 



Wales' Tour, ill. 52s. 6d. 

Russia's March towards India, 
by an Indian Officer, 2 vols., 16s. 
Russian Art, I05s, 

St. Dunstan's Library, 3s. 6d. 
each. 

1. A Little Sister to the Wilder- 
ness, by L. Bell. 

2. Corona of the Nantahalas, by 
L. Pendleton. 

3. Two Mistakes, by Sydney Chris- 
tian. 

4. Love Affairs of an Old Maid, 
by L. BeU. 

Saints and their Symbols^ 3s, Gd. 

SAINTSBURY, G., Earl of 

Derby, See Prime Ministers. 

SALISBURY, Lord. See Prime 

Ministers. 

SAMUELS. See Low's Stan- 
dard Setiett^ 



26 



A Select List of Books 



SAMUELSON, James, Greece^ 

/icr Gvnditi(m ay\d Progress t 6s. 

SANBORN, KATE, A Trufh- 

Jul Woman in S, California, 38. 6i. 

S Aim) ARSyGemian Primer, la. 
SANDIANDS, How to Develop 

Vocal Power, 1«, 

S AUEK, EuropeanCom7nerce,5s. 
Italian Grammar (Key, 

2s.), 5s. 

Spanish Dialogues, 2a 6<f . 

Spanish Grammar (Key, 
2s.), 5s. 

Spanish Reader, 3«. 6J. 



SCIIAACK, Anarchy, 16^. 
SCHERER, Essays in English 

lAteraturey hj G. Saintsburj, G^. 

SCHILLER'S Pvosa, 2*. 6d 
SCHUBERT. See Great Mus. 
SCHUMANN. See Great Mus. 
SCHWAB, Age of the Horse 

ascertained by the teeth, 2s. Gd. 

SCHWEINFURTH, Hea7i of 
Africa, 2 vols., Ss. 6d, each. 

Scientific Education of Dogs, 6». 

SCOTT, Leader, Renaissance 
of Art in Italy, Sis. 6d. 

See also Groat Artists and 

Illust. Text Books. 

Sir Gilbert, Autobio- 
graphy, 18s. 

Scrihner's Magazine, monthly, 
Is. ; half-yearly yolnmes, 8s. Gd. 

Sea Stories. See Russell in 

Low's Standard Novels. 
SENIOR, W., Near and Far, 2«. 

Waterside Sketches, Is, 

SEVERN, Joseph, Life, Letters, 

and Friendships, by Sharp, 21s. 
Sliadow of tlie Rock, 2s. 6d, 
SHAFTESBURY. See English 

Philosophers. 
SHAKESPEARE, ed. hy R. G. 

White^ 8 vols. 36s. ; 1. paper, 63^. 

Amiah; Life ^ Work^ ^«. 



SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, 
1603, 7s. 6(L 

Heroines, by living paint- 
ers, 105s. 

Home and Haunt 8 of, 315«. 

Macbeth, with etchings, 



105s. and 52s. 6d. 

Songs and Sonnets, See 



Choice Editions. 

SHALER, N. S., The U.S. of 

America, 36s. 
SHEPHERD, British School 

of Painting, 2nd edit. 5s. and Is. 

S HERMAN, Genl.; Letters, 1 6s. 
SHUMWAY, Tuberculosis, 

3s. Gd. nett. 

SIDNEY, Sir Philip, Area- 

dta, new ed., 6s. 
SIMSON, Ecuador and the 

Puiumayor River, 8s. 6d. 

SKOTTO WE, Hanoverian 

Kings, now edit. 3s. 6d. 

SLOANE, T. 0., Home Expert' 

ments in Science, 6s. 

SLOANE, W. M., French War 

and the Revolution, 7s. 6d. 

SMITH, Charles W., Theories 

and Remedies for Depression in 
Trade, §'c., 2s. 

Commercial Gambling the 

Cause of Depression, 3s. 6d. 
— G., Assijria, 18« 

CJialdean Account of 



Genesis, new edit, by Sayce, 18s. 

— Sydney, Life, 2ls. 

•T. AssHBTON, Reminiscences' 



by Sir J. B. Wilmot, 2s. 6d. and 2s.. 

T. Roger. See Illustrated 

Text Books. 

W. A., Shepherd Smithy 



the Universalist, 8s. 6d. 

HAMILTON, and LE^ 



GBOS' French Dictionary, 2 volf.. 
16s., 21s., and 22s. 

SMITT, Prof., Scandinauiaw 



In all Departments of Literature. 



27 



BNOWDEN {.I. K.), Talet of 

the rorffsTiiVe Wolds, 3*. 6d. 

SOMERSET, Our Village Life, 

with oolonred plates, 5s. 
BPIEES, French Dictionary, 

now ed., 2 voIb. 18s,, halE bound, 

SPRY. See Low's Stnntlatd 

Library of TraTBl, 
SPURGEON, C. H. See 

STAMLEY, H. M., Congo, new 
ed., 2 TalB.,2l£. 

CoomassU&MaQdnlnfit.Q'l. 

Early Traeelt, 3 vols., 

IB*. 6d. 

Emiii't Regcue, Is. 

In Darkest Africa, 3 vols., 

iis.; DQW edit. 1 Tol. lOs. 6rf. 

My Dark Companion t and 
thtir Strange Stories, illiis. "Js. dd. 

See also Low's Standni'd 

Library and Low'h Stand. Booka. 

START, Sxereii'e* in Men»ura- 
lion, M. 

STEPHENS. SeoGreatArtists. 

STERNE. See Bayard Soriea. 

STEKEY, J. AsHBY, Cncuiuber 

ChTOKichf, 5j. 

STEUART, J. A., it«ey.< to 

Livitig Autkora, new edit. 28. Gd, ; 

idit. de luxe, 10s. 6d. 
I See also Low's Standard 

NoreU, 
STETENI (W. B.). Through 

Famine-Stricken liuasia, 3i. Gd. 

STEVENS, J, W., Leather 

Manufacture, illnat. IBs. 

STEWART, DuGALD, Oiii/ines 

0/ JHbraJ Fhiloioyftv. 3<- (''!■ 

STOCKTON, F. E., -<vv?(,i 

C/ai;erden, 6s. 

Clocln of Rondaine, '^e. Gri, 

Mrs. Lerhs, Is. 

The Dusante.1, a Hequel 

to Mri. Lacks, In. 



STOCKTON, F. R„ Personall), 

C'jwducted ( (our in Eufojw), illuBt. 

7s, ed. 

— Rudder Orangert Abroad, 
2t. Gd. 

Schooner Merry Chanter, 

2s. Gi. and I9. 

—— Squirrel Intt, illast. 6», 

Story of Viteau, 5«., Bs.Gd. 

Three Burglars, 2«. & It. 

—~- See also Low's Standard 

No vela. 
STODDARD, W. 0., Beyond 

th! Roekici, 7e. 6d. 
STOKER, Bkam, Ujider the 
SMoatt, Christmas BtorieB, 6.'. 

Snake's Pass, Ss. 6d. 

STOEEE, F. H., ArjrieuUure 

atid Chemistry, 2 toU., 2S>. 
Stories from Scrihner, illaat., 

6 yols.p transparent wrapper. 
Is, 6<f.eaoh ; cloth, top gilt, 2«. 

. Of New York. |4. Of the Sea. 

2. Of the Railway. 5, OfthBArmy. 

3. Of the SoDth. |6. Of Italy. 
Stffry qf Jay Two Wives, 3s. Gd. 
STOWE, Mrs., Flo^eers and 

roif/rom Her Writinys, 38. 6d. 

-Life .. .her own Worde 
, . Letters, ^c, 16*. 
Life, for boys and girls, by 

6. A. Tooley, 5s., 2s. &d. and 2s. 
' ■ Little Fixcei, cheap edit. 

Is. , also Ix. 6d, 

Minister's Wooing, 2$. 

Pearl of Orr's Island, 

Ss. Gd. and Is. 
• JlTiele Tom's Cabin, ivitli 

126 new illnnt. 8 voli. 16s. 
See also Low's Standard 

NoTelsandLow's Standard Series. 
STRACHAN, J., New Guinea, 

Explorations, 12s, 
STEAHAHAN, Frmch Paml- 



28 



A Select List of Books 



STRICKLAND, F,, Engadine, 

new edifc. 55. 

STKONGE, S. E., & EAGAR, 

'Eniiish Grammar, S*. 

STUART, E. A. See Preachers, 
EsM^ Glaudex^s Islandy 

6s. 

STUTFIELD, El Maghreb, 
SUMNER, C, Memoir, vols. 

iii., iv., 86«. 

Sylvanus Redivivvs, 10«. 6d ; 
new ed., 3s. Qd. 

SYNGE, G. M., Ride through 

WonderlanAy 3s. 6d, 

SZGZEPANSKI, Technical 

Literature, a directory, 2s. 

TAINE, H. A,, Ongines, 

I. Ancient Begime and French 
Bevolntion, 8 vols., 16s. ea. ; 
Modern. I. and II., 16s. ea. 

TAUNTON, Celebrated Race- 

horsis, 126s. 

Equine CelebritieSy 25«. 

TAYLER, J. , Beyond the Bustle, 

6s. 

TAYLOR, Hannis, English 

Constitution, 18s. 

Mrs. Bayard, Letters to 

a Young Housekeeper, Ts. 

R. L., Analysis Tables, 1«. 

Chemistry, n. ed., 2«. 

Students' Chemistry, 5s. 

and S. PARRISH, Chemi- 



cal ProhUms, with Solutions, 2s. 6d. 
TechnO'Chemical Receipt Book, 

by Brannt and Wahl, 10s. 6cZ. 

THANET, stories of a Western 

Town (United States), 6s. 

THAUSING, Malt i> Beer, 45«. 
THEAKSTON,^n7i67i Angling 

Flies, illuBt., 5s. 
Thomas a Kemjns Birthday- 
Book, 8s. 6d. 

Dailt/ Text-Book, 2«. 6c?. 

THOMAS, Bbktha, JETotAse ou 

the Scar, Tale of South Devon, tSs. 



THOMSON", Joseph. SeeLow's 

Stan. Lib. and Low's Stan. Novs. 

W., Algebra, 5s. ; without 

Answers, 4s. 6d. ; Key, Is. 6d. 

THORNDYKE, Sherman's, 

Letters, 16s. 

THORNTON, W. Pdgin, 

Heads, and what they tell us, Is. 

THORE AU, H. D., Life, 2s. 6d. 
THOKODSEN, J P., Lad and 

Lass, 6s. 

TILESTON, Mary W., Daily 

Strength, 6s. and 8s. 6i. 

TINTORETTO. See Gr. Art. 

TITIAN. See Great Artists. 

TODD, Alpha BUS, Parliamen- 
tary Qovenvment in England, 2 
vols., 15s. 

Eyre, Anne of Argyle, 6«. 

M. L., Total Eclipses, 

8s. Qd, 

TOLSTOI, A. K., The Terrible 
Czar, a Romance of the Ume of 
Ivan the Terrible, new ed. 2s. 6(2. 

TOMPKINS, Through David's 

Realm, illast. by anthor, 5s. 
TOURGEE. See Low's Stand- 

ard Novels. 
TRACY, A., Rambles Through 

Japan without a Guide, 6s. 

TRAILL. See Prime Ministers. 
Mrs. C. P., Pearls and 

Pebbles. 8s. 6(2. 

TURNER, J. M. W. See Gr. 

Artists. 
Twentieth Century Practice of 
Medicine, 20 vols., 420*\ 

TYACKE, Mrs., How I shot 

my Bears, illnst., 7s. 6(2. 

TYTLER, Sarah. See Low's 

Standard Novels. 
UraON, H., Dairy Farming, 

2s. 

Valley Council, by P. Clarke, 
\ N K^T>N:C^ ijwt^^ KALS, See 



In all Departments of Literature. 



29 



VAN DYKE, J. C, Art f(yr 

Ari*s Sake, 7s. 6d. 
VANE, Denzil, LynrCs Court 

Mystery f Is. 

See also Low's St. Nov, 

Varhe^ Young Sir Harry ^ 18«. 
VAN UKKEy Showman's Life, 

Fifty Years t new ed., 2s. 6d, 

VELAZQUEZ. See Gr. Artists. 
and MUKILLO, by C. B. 

Curtis, with etchings, 31s. 6d. 

VERNE, J., Works by. See 

page 31. 
Vemet and Delaroche. See 

Great Artistp. 

VERSCHUUR, G.,At the An. 

Upodes, 7s. 6d, 

VINCENT, Dr. C, Chant-book 

Companion f 2s. and 4s. 

Mrs. Howard, 40,000 

Miles over Land and Water , 2 vols. 
2 If. ; also 3s. 6d. 

Netcfoundland to Cochin 



China, new ed. 3s. 6d. 

China to Peru, Is. 6d, 



WAGNER. See Gr. Musicians. 
WAHNSCHAFFE, Scientific 

Examination of Soil, hy. Branut, 
8s. Qd. 

WAKEFIELD, Bishop op. 

See Preachers. 

WALFORD, Mrs. L. B. See 

Low's Standard Novels. 
WALL, Tombs of the Kings 
nf En^gland, 21s. 

WALLACE, L., Ben Bury 2s. 

Professor, Australia, 21«. 

WALLACK, lt.,Memoirs,7s.6d. 

WALLER, Silver Sockets, Qs. 

WALTON, Iz., Angler, Lea and 
Dove edit, by R. B. Marston, 
with photos., 210s. and 105s. 

•^— T. H., Goal-mining, 268. 

WARBURTON, Col., Race- 
horse, How to Buy, See., 6s. 

WARDROP, Ol., Kingdxm of 

Georgia, 14s, 



WARNER, C. D. See Low's 
Stand. Novels and Low's Stand. 
Series 

WARREN, W. F., Paradise 

Found, iliast. 12s. 6(2. 

WATKINSON. See Preachers. 
WATSON, J., Handbook for 

Farmers, is. 6d, 

J. B., Sicedish Revolution, 

12s. 

WATTE AU. See Great Artists. 
WEBER. See Great Musicians. 
WELLINGTON. See Bayard 

Series. 
Rise of. See Roberts. 

WELLS, H. P., Salmon Fisher- 
man, 6s. 

Fly -rods & Tackle, IO5. 6c?. 

WENZEL, Chemical Products 

of the German Empire, 25s. 

WESTGARTH, Australasian 

Progress, 12s. 

WESTOBY, Postage Stamps, 

58 

WESTON, J., Night in the 

Wo'ds, 3s. 6d. 

Whincop's Pocket Chess Boar dy 

5s 

WHITE, R. Grant, England 

Without and Within, 10s. 6d. 
Kvery-day English, \0s.6d. 

Studies in Shakespeare, 

10s. (Sd. 

Words and their Uses, 



new edit. 5s. 

W., Our English Horner^ 



ShaTcespeare and his Plays, Ss. 

WHITNEY, Mns. See Low's 

Standard Series. 

WHITTIER, St. Gregory's 

Guest, 5s. 

Life, by Pickard, 18^. 

Text and Verse for Every 

Bay in the Year, selections, Is, 6d, 



30 



A Select List of Books. 



WILKIE. See Great Artists. 
WILLS, Persia as it is, Ss. 6d. 
WILSON, Health for the People 

Mrs. E., Land of the Tui, 

78. ed. 
— — H. W.J Ironclad Warfare. 
WINCHESTER, Bishop op. 

See Preachers of the Age. 
WINBEB^ Lost in Africa. See 

Low's Standard Books. 
WINGATB. See Okrwalder. 
WJNSOR, J., Columbus, 2ls. 

Carder to Frontenae, 16«. 

History of America^ 8 vols. 

per Yol. 308. and 635. 

Mississippi Basin, 2\s, 



With Havelock from Allahabad, 
2,8. Qd. 

WITTHAUS, Chemistry, 16«. 

WOLL ASTON, A. N., Anwar- 
iSuhali, 16s. 

English-Persian Diction- 
ary, 31.9. 6d. 

Half Hours with Mtiham- 



madt 3s. 6d. 

WOLSELBY, Lord, Decline 

and Fall of Napoleorit 3s. 6d. 
Woman's Mission, Cungi'ess 
Papers, edited by the Baroness 
Bordott-GouttSi 10s. 6d. 



WOOD, Esther, Z^aTife Gabriel 

Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite 
Mov£ment,yrith. illastrations from 
Bo8setti*8 paintings, 12s. 6d. 

Sib Evelyn, Life, by 

Williams, 14s. 

Cavalry in the Waterloo Cam- 
paign, ds. 6(2. 

WOOLSEY, Communism and 

Socialism, 7s. 6d. 

International Law, 18s» 

Political Science, 2 v. 30*. 

WOOLSON, C. Fenimorb. 

See Low's Standard Novels. 
WORDSWORTH. See Choice. 

Wreck of the " GrosvenorJ' 
See Low's Standard Novels. 

WRIGHT, H., Friendship of 
Qod, 6s. 

T.,Totcn of Cowper, Z$. 6d. 

WRIGLE Y, A Igiers Illustrated, 
100 views in photogravure, 45s. 
Written to Order, 6t<. 

YEATS, S. LEVETT, Honour 
of Savellif Qs. 

YORKE DAVIES,DR.,^eaZ//* 

and CondiiioVf 3s. Gd. 
ZiemsserCs Medicine, £18 18a 

YOUNGHUSBAND. Capt. G. 

J., On Short Leave to Japan, 6s. 



^\ Messrs. SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO., Ltd., are 
the publishers of a number of works in the Eastern Languages 
— ^Hindustani, Bengali, Sanscrit, Persian, Arabic, &c. — which 
were formerly issued by Messrs. W. H. ALLEN & Co., Ltd. 

Many of these books are used as Text-books in the Examinations 
for tlie Indian Civil Service and the Indian Staff Corps, also as 
Class-booJcs in Colleges and Schools in Iiulia. 

Complete Catalogue of Works in the Oriental Languages forwarded 

on application. 

London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, Ltd., 

St. Dunstan'B Hou«e,"FeUeT \A\ift^'^\^^\,^^t«ftt, B.C. 



BOOKS BY JULES VERNE. 





( ConWining 3S0 to BOO |)p 
I faU-MLite'illiistntion'. 


ConUinlnslho whole rf 
MitwiCt'Hi'DiiilLiiilrMii 


W0RK8. 


ckiHi brna- 
inir.gllt 


'B'' 


Clam 


Limp olDt 


SO,oaO LeaMuea under the Bea. 

Parts 1. laid 11 

Hector Scrvadac 

The Fup Country 

The Earth to the Moon and » 

Trip round It 

Mlohaol StrogolT 

Dick Sanda, the Boy CftpUin . 
rive Weeks in & Balloon . . . 
Idventurei of Three Eiiglish- 

men and Three Russians 
Sound the World in Ei^ty Days 

A Floating City 

The Blockade Runners. . . . 
Dr. Ox-B Experiment .... 
A Winter amid the ice . . . 
Sorvlvora of the "Chancellor". 

Kaptln Paz 

The Mysterious Island, 3 vole.j- 
I. Dropped from the Cloudi 
11. Abandoned 

III. Secret of the Island . . 
The Child of the Cayem . . . 
The Begums Fortune .... 
The Tribulations of a Chinaman 
The Steam House, 2 vols.!— 
I. Demon of Cawnpore . . 

II. Tigers and Traitors , . . 
TheOlant Baft, 2 voU.;- 
1. 800 Leagues on the Amazon 

II. The Cryptogram .... 

The Green Ray 

Godfrey Horgan 

Ker»ban the Inflexible: - 
I. Captain of the "Guidara" 

II. Searpante the Spy . . . 
The Arciiipelago on Fire . . . 
The Vanished Diamond . . . 

Hathia* Sandort 

Lottery Ticket 

The Clipper of the Clonds . . 
JCorth against Booth .... 
idritt In the Paelfio .... 
The FUght to Fiance . . 
The PurchaM of the North Pole 
l,Pamily without a Name . . 
Cesar Cascabel 


1 10 6 
10 6 
10 6 

I 10 a 

10 6 

10 c 

7 6 

] 7 G 

7 6 

! '_"[ 

1 7 6 

1 23 e 

( 7 6 
{ 7 6 

7 6 
7 C 
7 6 

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6 

7 6 

I , e 

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7 6 
JO 6 
7 6 
7 8 
7 6 

6 

7 6 
6 
6 
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5 
5 
5 

5 

6 

5 

2 6 
8 6 

3 6 
.1 6 

kB G 

3 6 
10 6 
3 6 
3 e 
8 G 
3 G 
3 6 
3 C 

3 6 
3 « 

8 6 
3 G 
3 6 
8 G 

3 6 
8 G 
8 6 
8 6 

6 
3 6 
3 6 
3 6 

2 6 

3 6 

2 e 

2 6 
8 6 


s. d. 
3 6 
3 & 
3 6 

3 6 
2 

a c 

2 

( 2 

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2 

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ist FoiutdUn«lllek; Capt«iilKU 



sen ojjim IjooliS cccli, ™ ■ 
3 vola. Bio, «W W-. ^<** 

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AK . y 



turned on 





0CTii>1S6p 



STANFORD UBRARIES 



% t 



l)r639 




/ 



/ 



/ 



23 J 5)09